Don’t read your note

Recently, I don’t have any presentation project for me to practice my presentation skills right now. Also, I don’t have any motivation to make up a presentation, and I think it is meaningless to make a presentation that will not be actually presented. So rather than practice alone, I think I can recall my past experience to find something new.

I am a transfer student from Humber College in Canada. That was my first time came out of China, and it also was my first time that I force myself to present in front of my classmates (because the presentation is not popular before college in China).

At that time, what would I like to do is bring the report with me and just read it, and most of my classmates were doing the same thing that I did. After the first semester, we were actually comfortable with the way that we present.

No one can improve his/her presentation skills in that environment until one of our instructors could not stand it anymore. She wrote down a requirement that we have to present without any notes. If anyone of the group members did not follow the requirement, our instructor would deduct 50% of group presentation score.

For that particular class, all the students were preparing the presentation so diligent. Then most of the presentations were going much better than past.

By going back to my past experience, I find that sometimes people need a considerable pressure to push them to move forward. If I did not take that class, I would never continue study abroad because of all most every class at UB has some sort of presentations as an assignment.

So what I had learned is that you need to get out of your comfort zone, and try to do things that you thought you couldn’t do. It takes time to prepare your presentation and yourself mentally, but it worth you to try. Once you well prepared, you might be impressed by the result of your work.