AAA #39

Written by: Goyal Naina (24-A2), Tan Ser Hwee Odelia (24-A4), Tan Ting Xuan (24-E6), Jessica Jolie (24-I3), Lauren Tan Say Jay (24-O1)

Designed by: Jessica Jolie (24-I3)

Q1: Even though it’s been some time since I entered JC, I still miss my secondary school friends. Are there any ways to cope with this?

As we enter a fresh chapter of our lives in a relatively new environment, it is completely natural to miss the familiarity as well as the company of the people you have spent the past four years with. This issue can be tackled with two approaches: maintaining the bond you have with your pre-existing secondary school friends, and making an effort to make new friends and find your community in EJ.

Sustaining the bond between yourself and your secondary school friends can become increasingly challenging as the year progresses and academic expectations ramp up in intensity. You can keep this connection strong by making sure that you are in contact with your friends online, and squeezing in physical meetings whenever possible. These sessions to catch up with one another do not necessarily need to be a full-day event, and seeing your friends even if it’s just to do work or have a meal together will allow you to feel closer to your friends although it is difficult to accommodate everyone’s hectic schedules. You can make use of shared Google Calendars to try to coordinate hangouts, and small things like seeing your friends' faces and snippets of their lives in their BeReals can also support your friendship. At the end of the day, you should just try your best to reach out to friends and make the most of the time you manage to spend together.

At the same time, this period of change also presents us with the golden opportunity to build new friendships! While it might be tempting to hold onto the past, taking the leap of faith to interact and engage with new classmates can help ease your worries and enrich your current experience. After all, with the hustle and bustle of JC life, there is benefit in finding your own community in EJ, offering you with people you can look to for support and solidarity, to tide you through the challenges of JC life. On the whole, Eunoians can be incredibly welcoming and open— all it takes is for you to take the first step out of your comfort zone, to try and make conversation with them. This isn’t just limited to your class either! In fact, there are many other circles and platforms where you can make friends in— your CCA, your house, even participating in other school activities such as the Inter-House Games and Cheer and Dance! By immersing yourself in these opportunities and looking for common areas of interest with others, it is natural that you will begin to forge new friendships, and create a supportive network that will improve your Eunoian experience. 

It will not be easy, and might even be scary without your secondary school friends around you, but just dare to try, and you never know what might happen. After all, isn’t it always better to have gained a new friend? So take the first step, talk to someone new, and just perhaps, you might find yourself soon chatting away with a newfound friend!

Q2: Presentations always stress me out, especially the Q&A segment. My mind goes blank the moment the examiner asks a question and I end up stumbling over my words. To make things worse, I am only able to come up with a proper answer to the question after the presentation. How can I overcome this problem?

Hi, thank you for sharing your concern! We know that many people can relate to your situation, given that not everyone is well versed in public speaking and even the best speakers among us are prone to making mistakes at times. We hope that these tips will help you improve your overall presentation skills and reduce the stress you may be experiencing.

One extremely important way to maintain your cool during presentations is to know your topic fully. As much as this sounds like a cliché, it really helps! The better you understand what you are talking about, and the more you care about the topic, the less likely you will make a mistake. If you do get lost, you’ll be able to recover quickly. This might be difficult especially if the topic you are presenting on is one you do not have much interest in, so another way is to practise. Practise in front of people you are comfortable with, but more importantly practise in front of people you may not be as comfortable with. You could take a video of yourself presenting and watch it back, or ask for feedback from people you are comfortable with. Find what works best for you, and if you are confident about what you are presenting, you are much less likely to get flustered. Also remember to focus more on your material, not the audience. Remember that people mainly pay attention to new information, not how it's presented. All this may be easier said than done, but just believe in your own abilities.

Additionally, to express yourself confidently during the Q&A segment, you can try to prepare for questions in advance. As mentioned above, you should already be familiar with the contents of your presentation in order to bring up relevant points and demonstrate understanding in your answer. Running through the flow of your presentation before the day itself is helpful for identifying potential questions that the examiners may ask based on what you are presenting. This will help you build confidence as you have the time to come up with logical and insightful responses that can be adapted according to the questions asked on that day. It also reduces the chances of you fumbling for an answer on the spot which will leave a good impression on your examiners as they are likely to perceive you to be calm and collected. Anticipating a range of questions from different viewpoints is crucial, hence do not hesitate to reach out to others to review your presentation and collate any questions they may have that can be addressed. If it is a group presentation, you can brainstorm possible questions with your group members which also helps you consolidate your knowledge. All in all, preparing for the Q&A segment should not be overlooked as it greatly reduces the stress of tackling a difficult question you have not encountered before.

In conclusion, building confidence for presentations is a skill that can be cultivated through preparation, practice, and a positive mindset. By knowing your material well and engaging with your audience, you can transform nervous energy into a powerful tool for effective communication. Ultimately, believing in yourself and your message is key to delivering presentations that not only inform but also inspire and connect with your audience.

If there is something on your mind that has been troubling you these days, feel free to send in your worries here! All submissions are anonymous.