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Hey PhD students, how often do you ask questions at presentations? If your answer is not often, why is this the case? Asking questions gives you visibility and helps to stimulate discussion. Here are some tips and tricks to participate more in a presentation question session.
1) Challenge yourself to to have a question at the end of every presentation. You don't necessarily have to ask it, but definitely write it down.Thinking about possible questions engages you more with the presntation. You may also save the presenter if no one else has questions!
2) Depending on your comfort level, force yourself to ask a question at least once for every 3-5 presentations that you attend. This is terrific practice for public speaking because it's sometimes rather unnerving to ask questions.
3) The most common excuse students give for not participating in the question period is that their question is 'too simple.' Try not to follow this line of thought. All questions are valid and stimulate discussion. Well-known researchers also ask simple questions at conferences.
4) You are intelligent and we want to hear from you. The discussion floor should not only be used by senior researchers. Participate, get noticed, dive in! And most of all have fun 
