Supplemental Materials
Guidelines for Research Progress Report, Poster, and Oral Exam
Suggestions for Poster Presentation
In making a poster on your research, nothing helps quite so much as looking at other posters. Take a walk through the hallways and you'll see numerous examples of research posters. The usual format is: title, abstract, background/introduction, experimental method, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgments — much like a journal article.
Plan your poster to be no larger than 3' x 5', with the long direction being horizontal. Think about the "flow" of your poster. Most people will start reading from the upper left-hand corner and work down to the lower right-hand corner. Make sure that major text is large enough to be read from about 6 feet away. Use figures and pictures rather than lots of text; remember the adage that "a picture is worth a thousand words". Take the time to format plots carefully; make sure you include labels for axes, titles, units, etc. Note that you do not need to fill the entire space with panels because you will typically not have sufficient time to discuss that many details with each person.
Prepare a 3-5 minute informal talk that you can give when someone asks you about your work. It's perfectly valid to walk them through the poster and explain each section. On the other hand, it's generally not a good idea to assume that anyone outside of your group knows enough about what you're doing that you can launch directly into showing your results.
Keep in mind that you may have more than one person at your poster at the same time so you should project your voice and make eye contact with everyone present if at all possible. The more you engage your listeners, the more interesting questions, dialogue and feedback you will generate.
Preparations for the Oral Exam
An agenda for the oral exam session is attached so that you can get an idea of how the session will be conducted. Below are suggestions about preparing effectively.
Your poster can often be converted into transparencies to form the basis of your presentation. You will have more time to delve into details of results in this setting (up to 30 minutes). You should also be sure to include information about your research plans, similar to your written report.
In addition to your poster content, you may want to bring some supplemental transparencies to help you in answering the more difficult questions you anticipate. At a minimum, you should be prepared to go to the board or to write on blank transparencies in order to make your answers as clear as possible. Whenever possible, try to keep in mind good teaching practices of listening very carefully to questions, writing in a clear, organized way, and stating any assumptions you feel you need to make in your responses.
Be sure to prepare to answer a fairly broad range of questions on the background of your research. It's a very good idea to practice giving your presentation in front of other students and post docs, and faculty so that you will be well prepared and calm at the exam itself. Try to get students from the groups of faculty on your committee, especially more senior students who have been through oral exams, to attend a practice session and ask you some fairly challenging questions a couple of days before the actual exam.
Of course, you cannot anticipate every topic that will come up. Your committee expects that you will have to "think on your feet" at some points during the exam. An important part of good performance is being able to reason methodically, drawing on both fundamentals and your reading of the literature, when asked a difficult question. You may sometimes need to stop and think a bit before answering; that is also expected. Keep in mind that it isn't always bad to say that you don’t know but it is generally preferable to follow that with an educated guess and an explanation of your logic