And Christine, I am positive whiteboard use would be very helpful to many defenses! I don’t have the option, so I don’t have to think about whether I could use it or not. But I still like the idea.

I was thinking more like timelines? Who said what when and who influenced who? Yeah, it’s a stretch, I know. :)

don’t forget to be awesome
http://geekfeminism.org/2010/04/14/self-confidence-tricks/

To comment on Christine’s comment — Carol Dweck would say, instead of entertaining “what if I fail” thoughts, focus on what you are going to do and how! Which is exactly what you are doing by writing this post!

I think the memorization suggestion is awesome. In my experience in other high-stress performance situations, I found memorization to be completely transformational.

Also, while I was doing my oral exam for my master’s, which is a much smaller deal but has some parallels, I found it really reassuring to have an outline. Just a list of the topics I wanted to talk about, and a few words to remind myself what I wanted to say. As few words as possible, but just to make me feel safe that I’d be able to get going in case my mind went blank.

And as someone who has had a lifelong shamanic journey with performance anxiety — bananas. The potassium in bananas = natural beta blockers! I even carry a package from Trader Joe’s (“nothing but bannanas, flattened”) for a quick potassium fix.

So psyched for you!

And the part about your Mom suggesting that you burn something made me laugh out loud.

I am entertained by the idea of what I could draw on a whiteboard relating to poetry statistics in my defense . . . that might just stun my committee into silence. :)

A few other ideas:

*Don’t entertain the “what if I fail” thoughts. They’re irrational and will only distract you. In the very unlikely event that you do, you can deal with it afterwards.

*If you’re a spatial person, have no fear of using a whiteboard or chalkboard to illustrate your answers to questions.

*Don’t be afraid to stray a little from the diss iteslf. If something you know is a good answer to a question but not in there, don’t ignore that avenue of discussion just because you didn’t write about it. You do know more than what’s in there, anyway.