How to Prepare for an Oral Exam __ Oral Examination Tips & Tricks

Hi everyone, in today's video we are going to be talking about how to prepare or how to get ready for an oral examination. Now what I mean by this is not really a presentation, so you coming in front of the class and presenting on a certain topic. I'm talking about you being asked to come in front of the class and answering questions or trying to defend your point of view, etc, etc. Tip number one, create a study guide. Now this is the longest point of the entire video and this is going to take you pretty much 90% of your time and your preparation because you have to gather all the material, gather all your data. If you're doing a thesis defense, check out your paper and just really try to summarize or just make everything short and sweet to fit in one or two page maximum document that you will have to review and you're going to refer to back and forth and this is going to be the core of what you're going to try to learn and what you're going to try to memorize in order to prepare yourself for the exam. Tip number two, the teacher's perspective. Learn the material with in mind being able to present it and to teach it to somebody else. This is a completely different style of learning. It's legit, not just memorization and just like, okay, I know my key points, I'm done. I'm just going to come with like a little flashcard and just like recite it and when someone asks me something, I'm just going to, oh, that's, wait, that's point two. That's not what they want, guys. They want you to teach it. Tip number three, the sales pitch. Now if you find out that you're going to have to defend some key points or defend your opinion on something or if you're going to be asked to, you know, a thesis defense, you have your paper, you've done your research, you've done the methodology, now you have to come in front of a panel of judges. They're going to ask you questions and you know, if they find something wrong with it, you're going to have to speak up for yourself and defend with facts, with examples, et cetera, et cetera. So when you prepare for your oral exam, definitely keep this in mind. Be prepared to like bite back type of thing. Perfect your sales pitch. You are here to sell your idea to either a panel, like I said, of reviewers or to one person, your professor. You have to not only sell what you're saying, so your content, but my next point is you have to sell yourself. So definitely before you go into that oral examination, look at your mannerism. You look at your posture, look at how you look, how you're dressed, how you present yourself. Because whether you like it or not, sometimes the professors or the reviewers or the judges judge you, because that's their job, on the first time they see you. So if you come in with a hoodie and a baseball cap and just like, when you talk, you talk like this. In their mind, they're registering, that person's not confident, probably didn't do the work, probably doesn't know what they're talking about, probably is lying about what they're talking about, and yeah, I'm bored and you know what, see whatever next. You have to go in it to win it, my friend, and impress them from the second you step through that door. Nothing can help you improve your speech and your mannerism such as filming yourself, because you literally can nitpick at everything you do. So my thing is hand gestures. I tend to use my hands a lot in presentations and it's distracting. So throughout the years, with YouTube, with filming myself, I'm trying to minimize how much I use my hands. My posture is much better than before because I worked on that. You can do it too, so grab your laptop, it doesn't have to be a high HD camera, and film yourself. My next tip for you, and I have to say, this kind of bit me in the butt when I did it. Oh boy, know your weak points and don't ignore them, like I did. When I had to defend one of my projects, one of my scientific articles, I'm not too comfortable with methodology and like, t-tests and one way ANOVA and whatnot, and I'm like, you know what, they're not gonna ask about that, you know, I'm just gonna like kinda know what I did in my paper, but the details are so excruciating, like I'm not gonna spend time on that, ain't no way they're gonna ask about that. Guess what, one hour, I was grilled on that. Nothing else, they didn't care about my results, my conclusions, nothing, methodology. How many participants did you recruit? What type of test did you use? Why didn't you use this bivariate, trivariate analysis instead of this one? Why did this result? They were biased, what graph shows the raw data, and it was horrible. I know this might sound weird, but the people you're gonna be presenting to are gonna notice the topics you kinda like, avoid and try to dodge questions. So what they're gonna do is they're gonna ask questions on exactly that, like they did with me. It's a, you know, it's a two-way thing here, so don't give them any chances of picking at your weaknesses. I've watched a number of videos on like, how to prepare for presentations, and I was really shocked at the amount of people that tell you, bring cue cards with you, or like, memorize what you're gonna have to say, and whatnot. I am, oh my god, like that, to me personally, is the worst advice you can give someone, especially someone that's nervous to present, or that's nervous to be in front of people, because the second you deviate from your memorized list or your cue cards, you're gonna panic. It's gonna be, I've seen people, like, with their cue cards, like, um, uh, it was, it was on page 6, like, that's gonna be you. So do not memorize. I participated in a improv group, so I don't know if you know, Équipe d'impro, if you're in Quebec, so it's kinda like, whose line is it anyway? It teaches you, it's like acting, but on the spot. If you've did all the points I mentioned before, so studying from a teacher's perspective, doing your study guide, knowing and understanding what you're gonna talk about, and knowing and having a lot of examples to share, you can kinda like, dodge bullets, okay? Know how to think on your feet, be comfortable with what you're gonna present, be comfortable and confident in yourself, and you're gonna ace it, because that's how hashtag bosses do their thing, and guess what, you're a boss, so start acting like one, okay? So before I leave you, like I mentioned in my previous video, I'm gonna link it down below so you can check that one out, I am moving house, and I wanted to ask you, honest honest opinion, okay? Do you like this type of background? I'm taking the shelf with me so I can, like, redecorate it, do you want me to change it up a little bit? I'm open for any suggestions, and I'm really excited to see what you guys have to say, and your really cool artistic ideas, this is officially the last time I am filming in this room, and I'm super excited, and I'm really gonna hope that you love my new place! So yeah, with that being said, please don't forget to give this video a thumbs up if you liked it, and subscribe to me if you like what you see, because I post study videos every Thursday, even if I'm moving, bye guys! Bye!