TIPS FOR ORAL PRESENTATIONS

What should you aim for?

As daunting as delivering a presentation may sound, there are some simple steps that could guide you through the whole process.

  • First of all, take your audience into consideration. There might be listeners that have little to no knowledge regarding your subject, as well as experts. Therefore, be prepared to offer background information if necessary.
  • Secondly, think of the presentation as a story. Accordingly, there should be a logical flow, including a beginning, a main body and an ending. Loudly and clearly explain all these stages, and do not forget to include a take home message.
  • Last but not least, we all know that practice makes perfect. It is advisable to repeat your speech in advance, to deliver it to your friends and ask them for feedback, or even to record yourself in order to correct your so-called bad habits. In addition, all these will boost your self-confidence and prepare you for the big day.
Some technical details
  • The presentations for MEDICS should be made using one of the following computer programs: Microsoft Power Point (.ppt, .pptx, .pps, .ppsx) or Prezi.
  • The font size should be as follows: at least 28pt for titles and at least 22pt for the rest of the slide content. It is advisable to use the same font face and size on all slides. In addition, there should be a contrast between the color of the text and that of the slide background.
  • As far as the slide content is concerned, it is recommended to use keywords rather than whole sentences. You should bear in mind that the slides are intended to support your speech, not to replace it! Arrows and other symbols, graphs, pictures and videos can visually augment your explanations and make the presentation more appealing. Therefore, it is important that they are of high quality.
Time management
  • Please bear in mind the fact that during the Oral Presentation competition, you will be requested to present your work to the commission in maximum 7 minutes. A stopwatch will be constantly displayed on the screen. The audience will be allowed to ask questions for 3 minutes following your presentation. For every extra 30 seconds you will lose one point from the overall score.
Evaluation criteria

Each member of the commission will award you between 1 and 5 points for:

  • Basic linguistic cohesion
  • Scientific Validity
  • Subject Comprehension – the relevance of your work to current medical practice and your confidence in transmitting the results
  • Particularity of the Study
  • Take-home Message – your study’s quality of being original as well as your capacity to sum up its unique point in an easy-to-understand way
  • Presentation Skills – the fluency and coherence of your discourse and the structure of your presentation
  • Capability to answer questions at your level of expertise
Prizes
  • You will be assigned to one of our two Oral Presentation sessions (Morning or Afternoon), on Sunday, April 10th. For each Oral Presentation session, there is one panel composed of specialists from our three main categories: Fundamental Sciences, Clinical Medicine and Surgery. They evaluate the performances of the Presenting Authors and decide who wins the three Scientific Prizes (three awards per session).
  • In addition, there will be one Popularity Prize per session for the presentation with the most votes (only votes cast by participants will be taken into consideration).