The Clock

This semester, students in Dr. Stoub's Advanced Biochemistry class are responsible for leading most of the class sessions. Recently a student made the offhand comment "I don't know how I'm going to fill 75 minutes." It's an understandable concern, but I have noticed it is a concern for students no matter what the presentation length is. Seventy-five minutes, 20 minutes, 15 minutes - any time in front of a class seems like an incredible expanse to fill - especially since good presentations will boil down to only 4 or 5 main ideas anyway.

The irony is, far more student presentations run long than fail to fill up the time. (You've probably noticed with some annoyance that this is true of professors' lectures as well.) There are several reasons for this. First, students rarely rehearse presentations "live". That is, a student may write out notes or work on Powerpoint slides, but they don't stand up and talk through the presentation straight through, without pauses, with an eye on the clock. Second, students underestimate the time it takes to convey an idea verbally. We think far faster than we talk. It doesn't seem possible that 50 minutes can be filled by 20 slides or by 15 note cards - but it is easily done. Third, students d0n't allow for the inevitable interaction. Good presentations lead to thoughtful questions, points of debate, connections with personal stories or prior material, all of which adds time to the presentation. Fourth, ironically out of nervousness about "filling time", presenters will often allow themselves to meander and to repeat themselves.

Student presenters are not alone in this, of course. I can vividly recall hearing a talk from a scentist at a conference in which the oral presentations were assigned to 15 minute slots. This particular speaker - a big name in my field - happened to have the final slot on the last Sunday of the meeting. He took 35 minutes. The feeling in the room was palpably uncomfortable. People were shuffling their feet, checking their watches, thinking about the line at the hotel to check out and their airline schedules.

I recently had a conversation with Dr. Queen about her Fall, 2008 Neuropsychology class. She told me that one of the best decisions that she made was to insist on a time limit for student presentations - that she would hold to a 1 minute warning signal and then, at the end of the assigned time, the student presentation would be ended. Apparently the threat of not being able to finish the presentation was more powerful that the students' usual fear of filling the time, and as a result, students rehearsed, the presentations were efficient, and the class period useful.

Most professors don't have the heart to end a presentation based on the clock. Or maybe I should say the common sense, given that Dr. Queen's decision clearly benefited everyone. But the point is, you, the presenter, shouldn't need someone watching the clock for you. Timing your talk forces you to stay on point, organize your material, reduce repetition, and accommodate questions and discussion. Rehearsing your talk in "real time" (keeping in mind that during the real presentation you may be interrupted) increases your confidence that you have enough material to fill the time, and encourages you to take more control of what you have to say. Thinking about these issues minimizes the risk that you will "overstay your welcome", repeat yourself, or ramble, all of which are far more detrimental than finishing with a couple of minutes left on the clock.