EPQ Presentation Evening review

On 17th February, I attended the Upper Sixth's Presentation Evening which was a useful learning experience, particularly with regard to the EPQ process itself.




Sources of information, Research Process, Collating information into final product and the Final product itself
The main thing which came out of the evening with regard to information sources is that it's useful to consult other people as part of your research, preferably an expert, as it can provide you with other routes to research which you may not have thought about yourself.  Similarly, you can find other routes for reasearch from bibliographies.  Also many people said they wish they had chose a specific question earlier on, and make sure there topic wasnt too wide, as this is far more productive towards your final essay and presentation.   

Things students did well as part of their presentations
The presentations which were most impressive and worked best were those in which there werent too many complicated terms, those which had been correcty pitched in order to show off their knowledge at a level which the none expert audience could still understand.  Also, the presenters who presented without a script and notes, engaged far better with their audiences. Everyone was very knowledgable about their subjects, which meant that they could answer questions with confidence. Those who were asked questions they were unsure of coped really well in trying to answer while letting the audience know that they hadnt gone into that area of research. 

What skills proved useful?
Mainly having a lot of confidence when presenting and answering questions, backed up by the depth of their research.


How will this experience help with my EPQ?
When researching and writing my essay, I need to make sure I look at both sides my argument with equal depth if I stand a chance at coming to a valid conclusion. The evening highlighted the  need to decide on my title asap so the area to research isn't too broad, because although I know I want to research the life of JFK and his reputation, I still don't really know what I will do question wise, or on what sort of thing I am going to focus, and that is going to become very problematic soon! It has also made me more motivated to find some form of expert to contact during my research as this could be hugely beneficial.
Presentation wise, the main thing that came out of the evening is delivering the speech with confidence, so I need to make sure nearer the time that I spend a lot of time working on this as it was the part of the process I was already dreading anyway!   Also, to maybe pick a few aspects of my project to focus on in the presentation so they can be understood would be helpful, and to avoid any long confusing words so the audience won't end up overwhelmed.