Project presentations and birthday celebrations

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I recently handed in my BSc Biology Third Year Project which has a weight of two modules worth of credit towards my degree. Included in the final mark for your project are the marks you get for presenting your work to a panel of lecturers. Last week I had my Third Year Project presentation which, while feeling slightly nervous, I actually really enjoyed doing. It was fun to talk about the work I had been doing for the past year. The presentation had to be within a five minute limit which is surprisingly challenging. There’s an awful lot you could talk about regarding your project; from background knowledge, your methods, the results, statistical tests, the discussion and importance of your work, ideas for future research, and more! The list is long, so trying to organise everything I wanted to get across into the five minute limit took some preparation - but in the end I think I succeeded quite well.

While I was a little nervous, I think being President of a society for the past two years has really helped my oral communication skills. I think speaking in front of a group of people only gets easier with practise, although when talking to members of a society you’re not being marked which makes it much less intimidating but still great practise nonetheless.

The actual presentation went by in a flash. After speaking for five minutes we then had about five minutes of question time during which the panel could ask you about something they were particularly curious about. Your ability to answer the questions was also marked. Then it was all finished! Both my coursemate and I still felt a rush of adrenaline after we finished our presentations, and luckily we could get rid of the left over nerves and energy in a kickboxing session. This was a lot of fun, especially because we had missed the past two weeks because of all the deadlines.

After doing well in the presentation I really wanted to celebrate, but with additional deadlines and exams around the corner it’s really time to focus. However, on Friday it was birthday (with so much going on I had actually almost completely forgotten about it!). My housemates suggested we go out to eat to celebrate, which was fun. They also surprised me with a present and cake back at the house.

It’s been a while since we were all together because everyone has been so incredibly busy with third-year work. We also started talking about when each of us has our last exams and dates we’re planning on moving out. I’ve become really comfortable sharing a house with these girls for the past two years, so it’s going to feel really weird packing up all our stuff, cleaning the house and leaving it ready for a new group of students to move in.

In the end one of my housemates, who also is on the same course as me, managed to convince me to go on a night out to celebrate too. I guess seeing as we had both just done our presentations earlier in the week we felt it could be justified, and so I had a really fun birthday despite being very busy!

Me and my housemate/coursemate (who I’ll also be travelling around Europe with after exams), can’t wait!

Exams begin in just over a week, so revision mode is on. Knowing I’ll soon be preparing for a trip around Europe is a good incentive to work hard for a bit longer and then enjoy some free time to travel.

Kristin