I have had severe anxiety of presenting or talking in public or just being put into an awkward position..for about a year now. I wanna know what these "tutorials" are at Mac and whether they involve me talking in front of the class. This phobia really ruined my last year of high school for me, i dont want to drop out of uni because of it?

How much presenting goes on in university?
If i talked to my professors, could something be worked out?
Thanks.

Tutorials are basically review of the topics you learned during your lecture. TAs might go over some of the key points from your last class or/and provide you with questions that will help you review what you learned. As for presentations, it really depends on the course. You do have to present to the class in some classes. Don't worry though because it's not too bad. Most of it the presentations are group presentations. Also try talking to the TAs because they will definitely offer you tips and suggestions that would help you get over your anxiety of presenting in public. Good luck and I hope you'll be able to overcome your anxiety!

I would say it depends heavily upon what program you're going into, and what courses you take. I managed to get through first year without ever having to say a word in class.

The Bio 1M03 lab had one group presentation, as well as a small "presentation" where you just summarize a scholarly article.
English 1A03 tutorial had one individual presentation, in my tutorial anyways.

So really there aren't that many presentations in first year science, you also don't need to take English in science, so there's really only 1 real presentation. It's not that long of a presentation, and the fact that you are with 3-4 other people means you don't talk for a very long time. And you can even talk to your group and say, "hey, I'm not that comfortable presenting, is it alright if I only do 5 minutes of presentation and I'll put more effort into research and power point design."

It definately depends on your program and what course you are taking. I am in nursing and the majority of my classes are small groups with ~10 people in the group.

If you have severe anxiety and it is becoming a problem when you do have to present something in a group and it is hindering your academics, you can speak to your faculty advisor, or go speak with someone from the Centre for Student Development (CSD) and they can help you.

Hey, I disliked giving presentations in elementary / high school. I recommend student development centre.. i think you will have to make some presentations in university at some point of time. In first year, I had to do a group presentation in bio 1mo3 and also in psych 1xx3 (though not all group members were required to speak during psych presentation). Sometimes they want formal presentations (seminar/power points/no creativity) and sometimes they want creative presentations. I'm not sure if presentations are easy to avoid in university, but good luck.

Presentations, or at the very least speaking in class aren't really avoidable in class -- unless you want to forfeit your grades.

Especially for upper year and seminar classes, a large chunk of your grade (up to 25%) is composed from your participating in class discussion. If you don't speak but you attend every class, you may get 12.5% of that 25%. In tutorials in first and second year courses, participating in class is a really easy way to give yourself better grades -- you can easily add a few grade points by just saying one or two things each class.

As already mentioned, you're going to want to check out the Center for Student Development (CSD), and they can help you with your social anxiety.

For the third year now, CSD is also offering a transition program called HYPE! in the summer for students who will be utilizing the services from CSD, which is something you should check out. I know two of the guys who are running the program, and they're really awesome.

I'm in Humanities, and in my tutorials we mostly talked to each other and with the TA about readings and concepts. Occasionally (maybe about 3 times in the whole year?) I had to do a little <5 minute presentation about a reading, for example. And once I had to do a group presentation, but again, that was about 5 minutes.

In first year engineering, you only have to speak in front of a group once for a final project, and you stand up with 4 or 5 other people, a group presentation. This happens at the end of the year and there are 10 other groups waiting to present in the room.

Know that most people hate speaking in front of a group and have anxiety. So you're not alone with this.

One good thing about university is that all the idiots who make fun in high-school are gone and are all working at McDonalds forever.

So your new audience is now people who want you to succeed when you get up to speak.

So 'don't be afraid of being nervous' when you get up to talk, anxiety/nervousness is natural.

Just be nervous and accept it, and try to speak your best.

And remember that everyone in the room is on your side and wants you to win.

im going into sociology
soo social science
what about that ?

see this year ive only done 2 presentations. they were both group presentations

and i passed out both times..
ugh im screwed.. great.

Originally Posted by blairwoods

see this year ive only done 2 presentations. they were both group presentations

and i passed out both times..
ugh im screwed.. great.

I had one friend who took medication for social anxiety, and it seemed to help him. Maybe a doctor could recommend something or give you some more advice.

1. If you go to university for a degree, you will have to speak in front of your classmates at some point.

2. Its your life so don't let a thing like anxiety beat you, or limit you in what you want to do.

Originally Posted by blairwoods

I have had severe anxiety of presenting or talking in public or just being put into an awkward position..for about a year now. I wanna know what these "tutorials" are at Mac and whether they involve me talking in front of the class. This phobia really ruined my last year of high school for me, i dont want to drop out of uni because of it?

How much presenting goes on in university?
If i talked to my professors, could something be worked out?
Thanks.

Hey Blair! I know this might seem like one of those patronizing or "You can Do it believe in yourselves" bs that alot of people who are naturally confident advise to you, but if you are willing to trust my words: I actually was exactly like you in 12th grade!

Here's the story: I was always a talented kid in english, like I knew alot about "stuff". However for the first time ever our teacher made us do graded presentations once a month on topics like Global warming, War on terror, Euthanasia etc. My comfort zone for these projects always was to do the research, make notes and sit back while letting my other group members do the actual in front of class thing. The teacher noticed that and the next time "forced" me to go up and speak otherwise my team will get no marks. The first time I went up, I suffered from exactly the same process you are going through. The class could hardly hear me, I was either looking at the teacher or at the floor. This routine went on a couple of times, but however by next year(my senior year) I had improved steadily to the point that I could do okay presentations. Infact my improvement was such that I even became a member of my school's debate team(after serving as a researcher/editor for two years and refusing several suggestions by teammates to join the speakers team), and we were pretty successful.
However at the same time I still felt the jitters/heart in throut/about to puke/adrenaline rushes of anxiety that you feel, every single time! How I dealt with it is sips of water, deep breaths, ignoring the crowd but most of all as cliche as it sounds believing in yourselves! It would be hard the first few times, but its worth it!

Like by now I'm pretty alright public speaker, In my first year at Mac I've spoken in 3 tutorial presentations, 1 lecture presentation, and 4 lectures during my First year council election, a few times in front of the SRA(which btw is something a number of even elected SRA members avoid for quite sometime because apparently they are "afraid" of making a fool out of themselves). I mean I still go through the jitters and stress and a good amount of self critical-you messed up there- I wish I hadn't said that- I wish I had said that differently- I wish I hadn't gone up to speak at all reactions but they are natural! I get over it eventually. But in this field, its just practice that makes you comfortable with public speaking in the long run.

I mean I woudn't deny the very famous statistic that shows that fear of public speaking actually ranks above fear of death itself for a number of people, but its commonly because we are afraid of standing out, being ostracized, judged, proven wrong, labelled and so on.
But remember you are a Sociology major like me, you will have to present and speak in public sometime or the other. Try my suggestions! Just shut out the crowd!
Good luck!

Oh here's a good video I just found:



It co-incidentally has a number of points I talked about as well as a few new ones.

Edit:

Actually there is alot of good inspirational stuff on youtube! And most of it is about people like us. Who feared public speaking!