Tips and Strategies for Giving a 5-Minute Presentation

Structure
A basic structure for your 5-minute presentation could be prepared as follows:

Introduction: Give a brief overview of your chosen subject. This can also include
information on why you have decided to choose the subject and why this interests you. An
introduction usually lasts around 1 minute and would only consist of 1 slide.
Main body of the presentation: The main body of your presentation will follow your
introduction and it is where you deliver all the key information on your chosen subject.
Instead of writing everything you are going to say on each slide, use the slides to highlight
the points you are discussing at that moment. You are free to use as many slides as you
want but no more than 4-5 keywords/key points per slide. You could also include pictures or
graphs on some slides for visualization purposes.
The main body of a presentation would normally last between 3-4 minutes.
Conclusion/Summary: The final stage is the opportunity to
summarise the key points you have discussed in the main body of the presentation. This
would normally consist of just one slide, highlighting around 3 or more main points you have
presented. This would normally take around 1-2 minutes. After this, thank the audience for
their attention and invite questions from the audience.

Key Tips:
With 5 minutes to fill, it is possible to make several main points. Whatever the number of
slides, make sure you don't write any sentences on the slides, just brief bullet points that
should guide you as you speak and remind you of the next points you are going to talk
about.
It is important to try presenting your presentation to yourself (or someone else) at least once
before the presentation date. It would also be beneficial to time yourself to ensure you stay
within the time limit.
You may also find it would be helpful to write a separate script for yourself, highlighting the
main areas you wish to discuss, however, don’t incorporate it into your slides and don't read
from the script to the audience. We will not be able to assess your speaking ability.

And remember, the main point of each presentation is to provide information and ideas that
are new and inspiring.