Need help with your grades? Here's some advice about giving presentations from the book "How to Get A's in College" (Hundreds of Heads Books,  $14.95), straight from people who've done it:

            "My presentation was on the illusory nature of the gender binary. It's a complicated, confusing and often emotionally charged subject, and I knew that in order to get the point across I had to break it down into segments that were easily understood. When I gave the presentation, I wrote symbols on the board (XX, XY) and then started drawing arrows and explaining why XX didn't always lead to XY, and so forth. Using simple symbols helped make the confusing subject matter more concrete and helped the class follow and understand the argument. "

            Laura Carroll, Salem, Mass.

            "I was already graduating, the class was not in my major and I was doing well in it. I was supposed to take a side in a debate, and I took the politically incorrect side that no one wanted. I completely ad-libbed the whole debate and just made one bold statement after another. People came up to me afterward and said they'd changed their minds about the issue. I just laughed because it wasn't what I really believed at all."

            Jesse McCree, Somerville, Mass., Bowdoin College

            "In my campaigns class, I devised a pitch to raise musical awareness in underprivileged schools. It was a mock presentation to a `school board' and I had an orchestra trio come in and play Mozart to demonstrate the art of sound and the creativity it will spark in kids. My project later lead to a brief internship at a nonprofit orchestra company in my hometown."

            Kathleen McDonald, Troy, Mich., Michigan State University

            "PowerPoint is a good way to feel like you have some sort of control. You push a button and the next thing happens on the screen. And it takes the spotlight off you."