LESSON: Hypothesis Testing

Hypothesis Testing

The past two weeks we have explored hypothesis testing, which involves making conjectures about a population based on a sample drawn from the population. Hypothesis tests are often used in statistics to analyze the likelihood that a population has certain characteristics. 

For example, we can use hypothesis testing to analyze if a senior class has a particular average SAT score or if a geographical region has an average precipitation rate.

A hypothesis is simply a conjecture about a characteristic or set of facts. When performing statistical analyses, our hypotheses provide the general framework of what we are testing and how to perform the test.

These tests are never certain and we can never prove or disprove hypotheses with statistics, but the outcomes of these tests provide information that either helps support or refute the hypothesis itself.

You've learned all the steps for hypothesis testing over the past two weeks. In the next lesson video you will see an example of how to complete a hypothesis test question from start to finish. 

If you'd like to see another example you can watch these past lesson videos:

Steps 1, 2 and 3 for a Lower Tail Test

Step 4 for a Lower Tail Test

Step 5 & 6 for a Lower Tail Test