I have my first summative group presentation and it wasn’t as good as I expected. All of us said everything we have to say and we finish it on time. However, when it comes to the question and answer part, we did not do so well. I did not contribute to answering the examiners’ question. When the examiner ask me details on another group mate’s part, I have no clue and was clearly hesitating before I tried to make up an answer and even refer back to my group mate about it. We also realize that we did not think thoroughly and deeply enough about our presentation and we are unable to justify our content.
My group members felt a bit awful to get criticized and pointed out our mistakes in the presentation. I feel disappointed and inadequate after the presentation. It has been stressful since I start this program as I feel that I am not fully prepared for the Master level of study.
I have two barriers to my study. First, this is a Master of physiotherapy (pre-registration) but my background is only life science and physiology. While I am grateful to get into this program, I am falling behind from most of my classmates who did sports science, sports rehabilitation or kinesiology in their undergraduate. Of course there are also a few that come from the same background, but I think my coping strategy and learning style was not effective enough as it requires. I tend to feel stressful about what I do not know and try to avoid them until the last minute. It happens to my anatomy module. Fortunately I learn more when I study in a group with my classmates. It works well with me, because they show me ways to approach the subject from different angle. The peer support also motivate me to study it although it is unfamiliar to me. Second, English is my second language. Although I did my undergraduate in English too, but I reckoned that Master level study requires a higher level of proficiency. I can engage in conversation fairly well in daily life and I read quite well but I have problem expressing academic ideas fluently and eloquently in English. I