With the end of the school year slowly approaching, the season of PODs are coming up for seniors. This means you may see seniors walking around with copious amounts of flashcards frantically complaining about their upcoming presentations. These presentations started at the last week and will continue into far into April, especially with longer deadlines due to delayed data collection. POD stands for presentation and oral defense and it is expected that we thoroughly explain our research project in around fifteen minutes and answer two unknown questions about it in five minutes. While the bank of questions is provided beforehand there is still no telling which question you will be asked on the spot. This is why I decided to send out a google form to get some opinions from our very own seniors.
Starting off we have Meredith Finley who says she’s “slightly nervous to present.” Although she does feel that she is pretty knowledgeable in her topic of study and thinks it will end up going fine. In addition she says that she is “planning to make notecards to go with my slides, and I’ll practice presenting until I’m comfortable with my information.” Overall she clarifies that she is honestly not to worried especially as the POD only counts as 20% of her actual AP Research score. It seems like she is managing her workload pretty well and trying not to worry about her upcoming presentation. This is a good time to note for those who aren’t familiar with PODs that yes, you can have as many notecards as you need and use them throughout your presentation. However this does not mean that you can just simply read off of them as if you did points would be deducted from your score. Although many people do go into their POD planning to read straight from their notecard since the number of points that are taken off from it is minimal and if the other aspects of your project were strong you are still able to get a five on the exam.
Next up we have Haley Weber who responded “I am scared I hate PODS.” She explains that she is not excited at all because she did NOT like presenting last year in AP Seminar and thinks that this will be even more nerve racking as she has to present in three teachers. Although she does not know if it will be worse or better than presenting last year she does not recommend. Unfortunately this is not an option because everyone enrolled in Academic Magnet as a senior is required to take this course. Despite this she says “I am almost done making my slides” and she is going to do her best to memorize every slide. At least she is persevering through her representation stress and trying to do her best to prepare. I wish her the best and know she will do amazing!
We have a very different perspective from Everett Landrith. He answered in one sentence saying it’s “A fun experience where I can share the research I’ve been collecting over the past year.” Wow, I disagree with this. However its good that he is able to think positively about presenting. This is in fact the only response I have received from a senior who is looking forward to their POD.
Keveon Ford responded saying “they’re horrible and torture.” He brings up the point that they put them at the end of our senior year when we are most burnt out. He thinks that AP Research is really the only thing that is keeping us attached to school, not even just the POD but the class as a whole. To end his response he explains that he is hoping and praying that everything gets done. To add on to his response I would have to agree with the fact that this is the time seniors are MOST burnt out. However, I think the placement of the POD only occurs because of the timeline of how long it takes to complete research and the paper itself but I would definitely agree and attest to the senioritis.
Emma Fang says that she thinks she will do well but is also pretty nervous about presenting. She also says “My research teacher has kinda left us to our own devices so I don’t quite know what I’m doing, but I’m excited about my study and proud of my paper.” Although this does seem a little worrying she still plans to make her presentation and prepare for her oral defense questions and practice everything several times over the week to adequately prepare. I am sorry that you were left to fend for yourself but I am confident that you will do amazing after all the practice you do!
Finally I chose to end with Max Lussier’s response as it provides some good advice for everyone who is struggling with lots of stress right now. She says “I’m nervous, but the experience from last year’s presentation in AP Seminar I think has helped a lot with actually making the presentation. Also, it’s a really small portion of the AP rubric so if anyone’s worried about that: know this, if you bomb it, it’s fine as long as your paper is good.” While you should always but your best effort towards presenting, I would completely agree with Max because its important to recognize that if it doesn’t go the way you might have planned it is not the end of the world.
I would like to thank everyone who responded to the google form and gave submitting their opinions and feelings towards PODs this year. As I have yet to present mine I would say that the anxiety has yet to kick in but I am trying to prepare as far in advance as I possibly can. I know that I will definitely be nervous but I cannot wait for it to just be over. Thanks for reading and I wish everyone the best of luck on their PODs!
