Managing presentation stress

Tips for reducing nerves before oral assessments, such as a presentation, Q and A session or interactive oral

Stress and oral assessments

Being asked to present or speak in front of an audience (even a small one) can make the most confident public speakers feel nervous. At low levels, nerves can help to motivate and energise. At high levels, they can cause physical or emotional responses that limit your ability to perform to your full potential.

Often, this stress stems from:

• Fear of being judged by others
• Perceived pressure to perform flawlessly in the moment
• Not feeling in control of the situation.

The good news is that there are lots of strategies to help you reframe your thinking and gain some control of the presentation context.

Reframe your thinking

A good way to re-frame any worries about being judged or having to perform flawlessly is to reflect on how you think and act as an audience member.

• Do you look for every error the presenter makes, or do you focus on what they are telling you?
• If a presenter stumbles on a word or has to stop and compose themselves, do you judge them negatively, or admire the fact that they were able to recover and continue?

Try to show yourself the same compassion and empathy that you would show to others. Remember that if this presentation is for an assessment, your marker wants you to do well — they are on your side.

Control what you can

The best way to gain a sense of control over an oral assessment or presentation is to focus on aspects you can influence. This includes what you know, what you say, how you say it and what the audience sees.

Develop deep understanding

You can gain a sense of control by making sure that you have thorough understanding of your topic — ideally, beyond the scope of your topic so you are prepared for any questions that come up. If there are gaps in your knowledge, try to fill them.

It’s also a good idea to anticipate questions the audience may ask and prepare answers. This will give you confidence that you won’t be caught out.

Consider audience expectations

Finding out about your audience can help to reduce stress relating to being judged. Audience satisfaction (positive judgement) often comes from the perception that you have met their expectations. To meet expectations, you first need to work out what they are. Who are the audience? What’s their level of knowledge on the topic? What are they hoping to hear?

Use talking points, not a script

Having a written script (full sentences) and reading from it might seem reassuring, but it can make it easier to lose your place and more difficult to connect with the audience. Memorising exactly what you want to say is also problematic, as if your memory fails (which is a common symptom of presentation stress), then you may stumble and find it hard to find your place.

For these reasons, it’s better to try and jog your memory using prompts. A good way to do this is to use talking points on any materials or on notes you have. This will help you to maintain or recover control of your delivery because:

• If you forget what you wanted to say or lose your place, you can find it again relatively easily
• There is a lower cognitive load, as you only need to remember what you wanted to say, not the exact wording. This allows you to focus on other aspects of your delivery, such as your body language
• You can control the pace of delivery. Responding to a series of prompts one at a time chunks the information and helps you to keep track of the stage or section you are at
• Your delivery will likely be more natural. Often when we memorise or read aloud, we lose natural features of speech like pausing, stress and intonation. These are the things that help us to convey enthusiasm and connect with the audience
• Talking to prompts shows your understanding, while memorising only shows your recall. Being able to use prompts will help you to feel and demonstrate your confidence in the subject matter.

Practice your delivery

Another aspect you can control is the amount and quality of practice you complete before the assessment.  As your level of familiarity with the material increases, you’ll be able to focus more on delivering it in a way that conveys your passion or interest for the subject.

Stress can come from worrying about how you sound and look while speaking. Practicing voice techniques (tone, pace, pauses, word stress) and body language (gestures, face, movement) can help to reduce this stress.

Capture feedback on your delivery and use this to focus your practice. You can get feedback by:

• Recording yourself (and engaging in reflection or self-feedback)
• Asking peers to watch you
• Rehearsing during an appointment with an Academic Skills Adviser.

Practice stress reduction techniques

Feeling confident in your knowledge, materials and delivery will help to reduce stress, but you may still find you need other techniques either before or during the presentation.

The following techniques are all effective ways to reduce stress and you can practice them well before the event.

• Physical - eg breathing exercises, relaxation, stretching or even exercise
• Cognitive – eg mindfulness, positive reframing and visualisation exercises
• Self-talk – notice your own self-talk, analyse negative thoughts and try to be kind to yourself.

Try different techniques and reflect on what works for you. Practice them in the days and weeks leading up to your presentation, and plan which ones you’ll use if you need them.

Tip: Try the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise
This is a useful method for reducing nerves by becoming grounded in your body. Name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can feel, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste.

For more practical strategies to help you manage stress, visit the Guided exercises section on the Counselling and Psychological Services (CAPS) website.

Plan for unknowns and challenges

There will often be aspects of an oral assessment or presentation that you can’t control. However, thinking about what might happen and how you’d respond can help you to feel more prepared and reduce nerves.

• Ideally, visit the venue or log into the software early, familiarise yourself with the space, and make sure that you know how the technology works
• If there are technology problems, what will you do? Do you have a plan B? eg a paper copy of your materials
• Try to anticipate any questions the audience may have—is there data you left out that you could have ready to refer to, or how will you deflect if needed?
• If you think you may experience stress, which strategies will you use? This may be as simple as having a water bottle handy to take a drink (allowing you to pause and get rid of dry mouth), or it may be one of the stress reduction techniques you have been practicing.