How Pharmacy Students Can Do A Good Project Defence Presentation In Nigeria

Project defence is a compulsory task in pharmacy school. Project defence can be internal and external. Internal is not always compulsory. However, both are technically the same. The major difference is that while the internal defence is before a panel of judges made up of lecturers from the department, in addition to the departmental lecturers, an external defence consist of an external professor as the supervisor. The external supervisor comes from another school. However, it is not always the case as external supervisor will be alone with the student.

Defending project before your lecturers is easier than before an external person. The reason is that the fear is more in the presence of somebody you do not know. This post is mainly defending your project before your external supervisor. The lessons could also benefit students preparing for internal defence if any.

Project defence in pharmacy

Project defence takes place in a variety of settings. It could be in an office alone with just the supervisor or in a room with other lecturers including your project supervisor. The last setting, which is not that common, is defending your project before your lecturers and the external project supervisor in the presence of your fellow students.
A good project defence is a roadmap to good grades. That is while it is pertinent to prepare for it. The preparation for the defence normally starts the day the project work is approved by your project supervisor.

Preparation

It is a good thing to prepare for the defence. The preparation is a situation of understanding your project work. It becomes easy when defending the project work written by you and not by some paid persons.
Beforehand, ask questions from other students the nature of past project defence in the department. The most important question is the external supervisor that is coming as they change external supervisor every two years. If the supervisor is the one that came in the previous years, consider the time given to each student, the nature of questions, and his grading criteria’s.
With a knowledge like this, you can organise your work. The summary should be designed to beat the time allocated. When the slide show is required, prepare it beforehand and submit it the day it is required. The slide show should contain illustrations in the form of images, charts etc. For a complete information on how to prepare a slide show, consider reading it in this blog.
Read Also: How To Do Presentation In Pharmacy Including Clerkship

Element Of A Good Project Defence Presentation Format

A good project defence summary should follow a story format with a happy conclusion. They are;

1. Setup
2. Conflict
3. Resolution

• Setup is the introduction of the situation and problem. In other words, it is the statement of the problem with aims and objectives.
• Conflict is a situation whereby the problem has been diagnosed and a solution found. The solution is the methods adopted.
• Resolution is the final part when the confrontation of the problem and solution implemented. The solution gives the result. The explanation of the solution should prove theoretically that it could solve the problem.

Rehearse the summary to determine if the time allowed is enough to present your fact. Rehearsal in the presence of friends and family could go a long way.

On The Day Of Defence

It is important to display professionalism at the venue. This translate to good dressing. A smart dressing is not compulsory to be a coat but cooperates attire will do.
If the project defence is in an office, knock before you enter. Exchange greetings and listen to the next instructions. On the other hand, in a room with other students, the name of each student to present is announced. Also, greet and listen to the next instruction.
Ideally, the supervisor will exchange pleasantries (if na the happy type) just to calm your nerves. The initial questions are what is your name? Where you came from? etc.
The project defence starts properly when the question of the project comes up. The most common first question is ‘what is your project topic.’ As simple as this could sound, a majority of student fail this. The reason is that since they work on the project every day, they always ignore the topic, as it seems quiet too easy.
The next question is always ‘what is it about?’ This question is simple but tricky. All they want to here is your abstract. What this means is that one aspect of your project work you should know in out is abstract. There is no law banning you from taking your own project copy inside the room or a piece of paper with the information. However, it is not professional to read from it, as it is a sign of unpreparedness.
The third question falls into a more direct approach. They use a general language. It is something like ‘so tell me more about it.’ At this stage, you have the freedom to give a personal narrative description of the project. The major part that interests them is the method. Sometimes, they feel like knowing the reason for the project and the reason for the method adopted.
Another general question is ‘from your work, what did you find out?’ Nothing here actually. Just pour out the result of the work and the significance of the result to the aims and objectives. This type of question mostly come either at the end or at the very beginning.
After the presentation, the supervisor may start asking general questions from the work. These questions are from the report with him or a thing you said during the course of the defence. Grammatical and typographical error(s) will be pointed out if notice in the report. Sometimes, the correction and questions start from even the very beginning if the report contains many errors of both natures or you made a mistake during the presentation. In some cases, the other students and lecturers are free to ask questions pertaining the defence. The truth is that majority of the students that have not presented are rehearsing in their minds their project defence. For this reason, they hardly ask questions or force questions when the external supervisor shows some level of anger why nobody ask a question even when he provided the avenue. For those who have defended, they are busy thinking about how their project defence went like and what their score will be. However, a wrong answer will strongly affect the grading.
A simple logic to a successful project defence is to consider the supervisor as a lame man that knows nothing at all. Never give an answer that you are not sure of. Instead, reply that you do not have the resource to give an appropriate answer now. The word ‘now’ indicates that in practice, you will investigate and find the answer and some supervisors get pissed off when a student says ‘I do not know.’ Questions asked by the supervisor may be known to him.
Ask for clarification of a question from the supervisor.

Common Questions Ask During Project Defence Presentation

Very common questions are;

1. How will this study contribute to the body of existing knowledge?
2. What are your suggestions for future research in this field?
3. What changes would you do if you were to start again?

Read Also: Project/Research Work In Pharmacy School Guidelines In Nigeria
It is a general knowledge the early students get more time to explain, and at the same time, more questions to answer. Towards the end, the external supervisor is already tired. It is very common to see students coming out of a defence room celebrating that no questions were asked. If possible, do anything to remain among the last persons.
If all these successfully implemented, it will eliminate problems like fear and fright.
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