Many young people encounter extensive presentations for the first time at university. Professors primarily rely on PowerPoint in their lectures to convey their content clearly.
Presentations and group projects are also gaining in importance, meaning students are increasingly required to create and deliver presentations. Many first-year students don't know how to create an engaging presentation and also struggle with stage fright when they have to speak in front of their fellow students.
Since a large portion of the grade often depends on a single presentation, this article aims to highlight common mistakes, especially among beginners, and how to avoid them. You too can create engaging and interesting presentations and stand out from your fellow students. Your professors and classmates will thank you!
Common mistakes when giving presentations
It's essential to remember: a presentation is more than just a set of slides! The spoken delivery and the skills of the presenters are equally important. All three aspects must be considered to create a good presentation. Too many students at the beginning of their academic careers focus solely on the slides and neglect everything else.
Giving a good presentation requires a lot of practice. All speakers should be able to speak freely, and the presentation flow must be prepared and rehearsed accordingly.
Mistake #1: Insufficient preparation
Effective presenting takes practice! Many students spend hours perfecting the content of their presentations, but never rehearse them together. Practice runs are crucial to avoid stumbles and slips of the tongue during the presentation. Often, presenters also don't know when it's time to move on to the next point or slide. As is so often the case in life, it's not just about creating a good product; it also needs to be marketed effectively!
Two or three practice runs greatly reduce the potential for errors. The process can be adjusted if necessary, and everyone knows what they have to do. Such rehearsals also reveal whether the presentation is too long or too short and needs to be adjusted accordingly. PowerPoint offers support through Presenter Coach, which was developed to train presenters. Here, we've taken a closer look at this new feature.
PowerPoint's presenter view can also help ensure a smooth presentation. However, be aware that depending on the room layout, you may not always have a clear view of your laptop. Very few seminar rooms have a podium, which renders presenter mode almost useless. You can find more information about presenter view and its features in our article "Presenting Better with Presenter View in PowerPoint".
Mistake #2: Presentation and lecture are identical.
If all the relevant and interesting information is on the slides, the presentation itself no longer offers any added value. In the worst case, the presenters even read from the slides instead of speaking freely! This destroys the suspense, as the audience can read ahead and then mentally check out.
To avoid this, you should decide during the presentation planning phase which information should be included in the slide deck and which in the presentation itself. Key information and metrics should appear in both; otherwise, the slides should reinforce the spoken content, not replace it. Image slides with little or no text are particularly suitable for this purpose. As a general rule, slides should almost never contain complete sentences, only keywords.
Error #3: No or few interactive elements
Many students focus solely on their presentation and forget how important interaction with their audience is. The result is endless monologues that stifle any spark of interest.
Interactive elements not only increase audience engagement but are also very well received by professors. Videos, for example, help to liven up the lecture, while questions and quizzes encourage your fellow students to actively participate. A discussion round at the end of the lecture is a good way to involve everyone and answer any questions. However, we recommend providing some structure for the discussion. Ask questions about personal experiences with the topic, otherwise, no one might speak up.
Further suggestions and ideas on the topic of interactive presentations can be found in our articles 7 tips for designing interactive presentations and More attention: 3 tips to activate the audience .
Mistake #4: Lack of eye contact
Eye contact is a key component of any good presentation. It shows that you are interested in the audience, and only in this way can you directly address and inspire them.
As mentioned at the beginning, many first-year students are rather shy and feel uncomfortable in the role of presenter. Because of this nervousness, they make the mistake of avoiding eye contact with the audience and concentrating on the slides or their cue cards. In doing so, they not only suggest insecurity but also a lack of interest in their listeners.
To avoid this, you should use the following tricks: Choose a participant who seems friendly and interested. Whenever you feel insecure or need reassurance, look to this person. However, don't focus too much on one individual; instead, consciously let your gaze wander across the room. Mentally divide the room into four sections. Your gaze should rest on one section for about five seconds and then move to the next. This way, each section of the audience feels directly addressed and acknowledged.
The articles "Establishing and maintaining eye contact during the presentation" and " 5 tips for self-presentation: How to appear convincing" offer further information on the topic of eye contact when giving presentations.
Common mistakes in slide sets
Even when creating slide decks, the same mistakes are repeatedly made, but they could easily be avoided. We've compiled the most common ones for you and explain how to fix them!
Mistake #5: Too much content and presentations that are too long
Many students fear overlooking important content and therefore include too much information in their presentations. Consequently, their presentations are too long, exceed the time limit, and bore the audience and the lecturer.
In presentations, less is often more: Focus on the essentials. Avoid getting bogged down in details! A few practice runs will quickly show you how long the presentation actually takes, and you can then remove any unnecessary content. This way, you'll stay within the time limit and keep your audience engaged.
Relevant references to literature at the end of the presentation or in the handout show that the material was thoroughly reviewed but deliberately omitted.
For more tips on how to better focus your presentation, see our article "White Spaces in Presentations – Why Less Content Can Often Be More" .
Mistake #6: Overloaded slides
Beginners especially tend to overload their slides with text and effects. The slides are filled from top to bottom with text, everything is colorful and animated, and no one in the audience can follow along. Just like with the content itself, it's important to keep things concise and clear. Only essential information should be on your slides; everything else can always be added later in the handout.
The text on slides should always be limited to keywords; sentences are only justified in exceptional cases. Anything more is too much! Choose a consistent color scheme at the beginning and stick with it. Too much color confuses the audience and distracts from the important content. The same applies to fonts: one font for headings, one for the rest of the text—that's all you need.
We recommend creating a slide master and then sticking to that layout. This ensures your audience can follow the presentation without distractions. It's also generally advisable to avoid elaborate effects and stick to simple ones. Less is more!
We explain how to create a slide master in the articles "Why every PowerPoint user should have a slide master" and "Proper handling of the slide master – renaming and adding" .
Mistake #7: Too much text and too few images
As mentioned in the previous point, slides should be visually appealing and not a reading exercise. They should contain only the absolutely necessary text, nothing more. Unlike blocks of text, images are interesting to the audience and significantly more effective at capturing their attention and evoking emotions. However, to appear professional, the images used must be of appropriate quality. They have their maximum impact when used alone on a slide, as multiple images on the same slide compete with each other and thus diminish each other's effectiveness.
Therefore, try to liven up your presentation with graphics, charts, and multimedia examples, and use them to emphasize your content. Images are a central element of presentations, and consequently, they are a frequent topic of discussion. You can find further information in the articles " Using Images Correctly in Presentations , " "Visually Enhance Slides with Transparent Image Collages," and "Creating Professional Layouts with Large Images ."
Mistake #8: Lack of familiarity with technical aspects
To prevent technical problems, you should conduct a test run on-site if possible. This way, you can be sure that you have all the necessary cables and know how the various devices work. You should also have a backup plan: it's better to save the presentation twice – on your laptop and a separate USB drive – or ideally, bring two laptops, which shouldn't be a problem for group work.
When presenting on a university laptop, extra care is needed. It's crucial to pay attention to which version of PowerPoint is installed on the device. Different versions can cause headings or tables to shift, fonts to change, or effects to disappear. A painstakingly created layout can quickly become ruined. You can avoid this problem by saving your presentation as a PDF. This file type guarantees that your slides will always look the same, but unfortunately, this method will result in the loss of any PowerPoint effects.
It is recommended to conduct a test run on the device intended for the presentation. This will allow you to determine what further steps are necessary.
Mistake #9: Poorly designed handouts
Handouts offer many advantages: They summarize the most important content of the presentation, contain valuable additional information, and provide your audience with an excellent overview. This allows listeners to follow the presentation effectively. All the data that was omitted to keep the presentation short and engaging can be included here.
Many students view handouts as an additional burden. However, they are a wonderful opportunity to better engage the audience and increase their attention.
A well-designed handout not only offers a lot of added value for your audience, but also opens up new possibilities for you! Read more about handouts in How to optimally support your presentation with handouts .
Concluding remarks
Many universities also offer design templates and style guides for presentations, which they make available to you. This ensures that your slide sets meet the expectations of the respective department and also saves you some work.
The number of presentations that students and professors are confronted with each year is enormous, and unfortunately, many presentations leave much to be desired. By following the tips in this article and avoiding the mistakes mentioned, you can not only improve your grades with minimal effort, but also do your audience a favor. Try to create presentations that you yourself would enjoy listening to!