How Do You Determine Whether To Use A One-Sample, Paired, Or Unpaired T-Test?
So you’re taking statistics and you know you need to use a t-test, but are stumped on what kind of t-test to use? This simple article shows you how to determine whether a paired, unpaired, or one-sample t-test is appropriate in your particular situation. Ask yourself: Do I want to compare the means of two groups, or do I only care how the mean of a single group compares to some number? If you want to compare the means of two groups, continue to Step 2. However, if you only care how the mean of a single group compares to a single number, use a one-sample t-test. An examples of a case where a one-sample t-test is appropriate would be if one is testing whether the average student consumes significantly more than 2000 calories a day (e.g., you are comparing the mean number of calories consumed to see whether it is significantly greater than the number 2000). If you are comparing the means of two groups, next ask yourself: Did the two groups of numbers that we are comparing come from the sa
