Before you walk in
- Put your phone on silent.
- Keep only your presentation file open.
- Remember the goal of your work, your 3 main findings and your conclusion.
- Don't try to reread the whole paper at the last minute.
Quick help for students
Open this page on the day of your defense. It has only what you really need in the last few minutes.
The first 20 seconds of your speech
“Dear members of the committee, I am presenting my work on the topic … The relevance of this topic is due to …”
If you don't know the answer
Thank you for the question. In this work, I focused mainly on the part directly related to the goal of the research.
If you feel nervous
- Breathe out slowly — longer than you breathe in.
- Don't rush to start speaking. A 2-second pause is perfectly fine.
- Look at one calm person, not the whole committee at once.
- Speak a little more slowly than usual.
The 5 most important things to remember
1Relevance of the topic
2The goal
3Methods used
43 main findings
5The conclusion