The Student Room Group

S2 - In hypothesis testing how do you know to test for p > / p < and p ≠ (not =)

A lot of the time the answer is obvious to either use p < 0.05 or p > 0.05 etc but if it does not specify in the question, how do you know when to use that or use p 0.05?

IN other words how do we tell to use a one tailed test or two tailed test when it isnt instructed?
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by twigface
A lot of the time the answer is obvious to either use p < 0.05 or p > 0.05 etc but if it does not specify in the question, how do you know when to use that or use p 0.05?

IN other words how do we tell to use a one tailed test or two tailed test when it isnt instructed?


That's the point though, it is either instructed or implied. It will never require you to just arbitrarily choose one or two tailed.
look out for defining/restricting key words in context of the question... like reduced, improved, quicker etc, rather than just "change" or "difference"

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