Final Reflection

Phew, am I glad that we’re given a chance to write a final reflection! There were so many things I wanted to say during the 2-minute sharing session on our last day with Ms Lim but I had to rush off to my exam. Pardon me if I was looking stressed too!

I feel that this module is really different from other modules in NUS as it imparts us with life skills such as communication, writing formal letters, job interviews and oral presentation. Along with the many projects with classmates, this module further helped me in managing interpersonal relationships. Taking this module has really been very productive as I can now put the skills learnt to good use in future.

I especially liked the activities done during class because interestingly, very often the main aim of the activity is not the activity itself, but to discover the way we interact with one another. This allows us to understand ourselves and others better, which is important so we can work well with each other. From the projects, I have also learned how to adapt my own working style to complement that of my classmates’ and bring the best out of one another. It is really a fruitful experience as I got to work with different people for class activities, peer teaching and the proposal. With Ms Lim’s constant scrutiny and constructive criticism of our writing and survey questions, it is really helpful as I can now write with better clarity and design unbiased questions.

Blogging is another unusual aspect of this module. It trains our writing and commenting skills which is effective in letting me take note of my 7Cs. It has also improved my analytical skills having instructed to write on a particular topic. This module has been really comprehensive in building our skills and I will definitely recommend it to my friends.

I am thankful too for a very encouraging, personable teacher and friendly classmates, all of whom contributed to a pleasant and exciting learning journey. :)

Reflection on Oral Presentation

The amount of time I spent on preparing the powerpoint slides was equivalent to 3 full days. It was good that I prepared a speech text before designing the powerpoint slides as the speech text set the skeleton for my presentation delivery method, and also ensured I included my audience. At the initial preparation stage, I just transferred what was in my speech text onto the slides from prose to point form, which made the slides somewhat mundane. However when my group collated our slides, I realized more pictures and more captivating animations should be added to capture the audience’s attention. As what Ms. Lim told us, “seeing is believing”, so I made sure my important points are in the slides and not just verbally stressed upon.

For my oral presentation, I spent 2 days practicing, which is much longer than I expected. I guess it’s because I got more edgy the more I practiced, and started forgetting certain things I wish to say. I thought it’s bad to spend so much time practicing since I ended up being more nervous instead; but to my surprise, I actually felt exceptionally calm during my actual presentation. The large amount of time spent practicing was worthwhile as it allowed me to really internalize what I needed to say. Thankfully the audience was really encouraging too :) Then again, having not watched the video of my own presentation yet, I feel being too calm may not be good as probably I may give the impression that I’m too relaxed? I think my biggest problem is that I was not loud enough, which might lead to the misconception of not being confident. Also, I might have turned to look at my slides more often than I should. Hopefully my strengths are that I was quite fluent and injected appropriate gestures!

Having said all these, I still feel that the best presentation is when the presenter is sincere, and manages to let his or her audience feel it. He or she also has to be clear and easily understood. Being a good presenter certainly requires lots of practice!

P.S. A BIG THANK YOU to Yi Han, Charmian and Franson for being wonderful teammates! Saturday was memorable. Haha. (Please don't include this in the word count! =P)