So today, I presented my work in front of these 3 examiners using Powerpoint slides.

On the first slide, I presented the overview of the concept that I was working on. Suddenly, one of the examiners quickly wanted to see my references, which of course would be on the last slides, so I had to scroll down to the last slides and show them the references. After they were happy with that, I went up back to slide 1 and proceeded to explain my outline, definitions and problem statements on slides 2-4. Once I reached slide 4, one of the examiners wanted to know subtopic X, which was on slide 9 (very eager to know subtopic X I guess). But in order to explain X, I needed to go through slides 5-8 first, if not the flow of the presentation would be disconnected. Since they were so eager to know subtopic X, I skipped slides 5-8 and jumped to slide 9. Some valuable information and findings were lost because I skipped slides 5-8. When they asked me questions on some topics, I needed to show them slides 5-8 which were skipped because one of them were so eager to see subtopic X on slide 9.

At the end of the presentation, one of the examiners said that my presentation was not organized and I didn't define the concept and the concept should be defined first.

The heck? :/

I've already defined that on the 2-4 slides and since they kept on asking me to jump here and there, of course it would look disorganized.

Am I in the wrong here?

*If I'm not clear, I'm really sorry. A bit tired really from all the work done :/

It's awkward when people interrupt and pre-empt what you plan to say later on. But you are allowed to stand your ground - it's quite reasonable to say 'I will go on to talk about topic X in a few slides, but first I want to lay the foundations by describing Y'. Striking the balance between sticking to your plan and being responsive to the audience can be a challenge, but remember that it's *your* talk and you should be in control of the order etc.

Did you do a trial run with anyone before showing it to your examiners? It can be a good idea, especially showing it to someone who is a little detached from your topic, as they can comment on clarity and order etc. It may well be that your presentation might have benefited from being organised differently, but I think the examiners were a little unfair to keep interrupting you and throw you off course.

Sounds as if your actual presentation wasn't awkward, but you had awkward examiners!

I agree with the previous poster, maybe next time be (nicely) clear that the points they are interested in are contained in later slides. (It's not easy to think on your feet like that when you're put on the spot, though)

Try not to take it too much to heart, IMO they were being unfair to you.

What I would suggest is start the presentation with a first slide that describes the order of the presentation... In any case though it is very unlikely that anyone puts references on the first slide, so yeah, the examiners were a bit weird!

======= Date Modified 27 Jun 2012 17:26:31 =======

Yeah! I should have said this! :/

I could have just said; "Urm, one moment please; just let me finish this one and we could go to that slides" :/

It's my first PhD colloquium so I didn't know what to expect.



I did but. But it was just brief. I just explained my layout to my main supervisor; but my co-supervisor wasn't there and we just communicated through email.

======= Date Modified 27 Jun 2012 17:33:23 =======

Yeah, I would; should I be firm? Because some of the examiners were insistent on me showing X, Y and Z where I haven't even show A, B and C. :/



Aw, mate. Thank you. I was a bit upset with it really :/

An examiner, who was not examining, but just watching the presentation, said to me that, I did a lot of work and it was a good job.

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======= Date Modified 27 Jun 2012 17:38:22 =======

I did; I put an outline in the 1st or 2nd slide I think, telling them what I wanted to do.

It's interesting that one of them said I didn't have a section or something along the lines, I should've included 'A' - but it's glaringly obvious that A is already there.

Or maybe I'm just a bad presenter :/

They also claimed that I'm 'digressing' and they just wanted to help. ... Something's not right with that comment really... :/

To avoid the problem with references in the future, a suggestion might be to have a paper handout of your slides, so that rather than having to flick forward on the screen you can refer them to the handout. Was this some kind of progress review as you speak about examiners? If so, you should get some written feedback, which might help clarify the oral feedback they gave - sometimes straight after a stressful presentation, I think we all tend to overreact to criticism simply because we are wound up and any criticism feels both harsh and unfair. It might be that it's not as bad as you think right now. Were your supervisors there? If so, ask them for feedback too. But before asking for or reading any feedback, have a couple of good nights' sleep first and do some nice things to take your mind off it, and then when you're refreshed tackle it.