This is what I did and I am the worst public speaker today still, but it got me the A.
For the initial speeches, I memorized them. I practiced memorizing them and then fine tuning them by cutting out the “Umm’s” and whatnot and keeping track of my timing. I’ve always been a good writer, so make sure that the writing is solid before you start memorizing your speech. I researched anything that I was talking about heavily beforehand.
All of this went very well. The demonstration speech I had to do was the hardest because I didn’t really know what to demonstrate. I ended up demonstrating how to wrap presents.That went fine.
I probably worked harder for an A in this class than my quantum physics class.
Is the purpose of a department final to see if what you learned from the class matches what the department is trying to make sure every student learns what they need to?
Some colleges give departmental finals for some course that are taught in multiple sections by multiple professors (often introductory level courses). This is done to insure that all students taking the course are taught to the same standard, that one professor does not give easier/harder exams than others etc. It is not an uncommon practice.