Advice from Former Students in Math Forum
Math 198, Fall 2012, Harvey Mudd College
Prof. Orrison
- Be proactive in thinking about topics for your talks; they have a habit of sneaking up on you!
- When thinking of topics, make sure you can explain them succinctly, and are enthusiastic about them.
- Carefully select your topic. It should be interesting, but you should also know the content pretty well.
- Having a well thought out topic about something you know well or care about makes giving and creating a presentation much much easier.
- Talk about things your care about. People can tell when you are interested and they find that interesting.
- Try to figure out how much information you can fit into five minutes--it's shorter than you expect.
- Don't try to accomplish too much in a short talk!
- Watch other people's talks carefully--figure out what you like and don't like about them.
- Fill out your responses to other people's talks as soon as you can after class, because you will start to forget things if you put it off.
- Get a good night's sleep before a talk.
- Practice in front of Prof. Orrison! He can be very helpful.
- The more prepared you are for your practice talk, the better the final talk can be.
- Take this course seriously because it has huge potential to change the way you present technical work.
- Use Math Forum to become a better speaker. It's the time and place to do it.
- Know the purpose of the talk; the content will follow naturally.
- Watch the videos of previous talks. Think seriously about what can be improved.
- Meet with your group early.
- Don't try to do too much--pick one topic and explain it to your grandma.
- A smile and some enthusiasm go a long way.
- Slides are for pictures, main points, and organization, not for writing out your whole speech word for word.
- Stand close to the audience, look at them, and project your voice.
- Do not make slide while planning your presentation. If you plan it first, give a run through or two, and then make slides, your presentation will be clearer.
- Have fun! Your classmates are in the audience, and it is a chance to share something special with them that they may never have otherwise known about.