Dealing with anxiety about answering questions during presentations I'm a PhD student in social science. Recently, I have been invited to present my work at a conference and a lab meeting. I'm glad about the opportunities to present my work in front of colleagues. But at the same time, I'm afraid that I won't be able to answer questions from audience and they will think that I'm dumb.
To be clear, I don't have anxiety about giving a talk per se, or at least know how to deal with it. I have a script for my talk, rehearse it so many times to the point I almost memorize it. I even practice my facial expressions and voice tone during the talk. I just learn and practice how to present my &quot;ideal&quot; academic self to colleagues.
However, when it comes to Q &amp; A after my talk, I sometimes couldn't answer questions professionally. I think there are two reasons for why sometimes I couldn't answer questions.

I'm not a native English speaker. When someone asks me a question that I couldn't understand, I ask the person to repeat the question or ask a follow-up question for clarification. But this strategy doesn't always work. One time, at a conference, I couldn't understand the question after asking the person to repeat the question twice. It was so embarrassing.

When I'm under pressure, my brain stops functioning and I couldn't really think! When people suggest a new idea that I'm not familiar with, I feel like my brain stops working, my mind goes blank and I cannot really provide &quot;sophisticated&quot; answer, which is possible only when I fully understand what their question actually meant and when I know how to connect their idea with my work. Also, it is so hard for me to come up with a good answer in a minute. I cannot really think when everyone is looking at my face waiting for my answer.


Given that how judging academia is, I feel like people will eventually find out that I'm not that smart. My frustration is that I cannot prepare for questions in advance. They are often unpredictable and random. I'm wondering if you have any tips or advice about how to deal with questions after talk or how to overcome anxiety about questions.
There are other questions about &quot;imposter syndrome&quot; on this Stack, it might be useful to look through them because some of what you describe might fit into that area.
Besides that, I think the best way to feel better about answering questions during presentations is to do it a lot. Seek out opportunities to present to a &quot;friendly audience&quot;, and ask that they challenge you with questions. Talk about your research informally with fellow students in your area. Do all of this in English, in case you typically use another language in those contexts.
You can also try to plan ahead for certain questions or areas of questions, and even make slides to respond to those questions ahead of time if they are asked. Generally I wouldn't suggest purposefully leaving information out to prompt certain questions, but it is rare that you can fit every single caveat and counterexample and piece of background into a talk.
If you can't figure out what question someone is asking, try to ask it back to them, even if you are off the mark or don't get it exactly right - that's usually more productive than just asking someone to repeat. I see native English speakers including everyone from students to full professors have trouble understanding what someone is asking about all the time - it's quite normal. Also, questions asked during a talk aren't like exam questions where a grader is judging your answer based on some rubric for that specific question. Usually the asker is hoping to get you to elaborate on something, so even if all you can pick up is a key word you can repeat back a possible question based on that key word, or just start elaborating on that area. I'm also a fan of being honest with language difficulties. I would never think less of someone who just gave an entire talk in their non-native language but doesn't understand a particular word or phrase I used.
Lastly, I don't think academia is nearly as &quot;judging&quot; as you may think it is. Especially when you are presenting your own work, know that you are the best expert in the world in your own work. PhD-level research does build on what has been done before, but ultimately if it's research worth doing as a PhD student it is pushing some boundary of knowledge. You're the only person who has yet crossed that particular boundary, and the whole point of giving an academic presentation is to bring your colleagues up to speed.