BUS308 Week 2 Discussion 1 Hypothesis Testing / T-tests / F-test

After last week’s lessons I found that this week’s first lecture talked about interpreting some of the finds we notice. I have to admit that I was slightly frustrated because even though I could see the differences in numbers. I really had no clue as to what I was looking for with the numbers we had. So, for me to come to a conclusion did not make sense to me if I did not fully know what I was looking for within the data. This first lecture put a smile on my face as it talked about the differences with the results from the data received. The difference can say a lot about what we are looking for within the samples we have. While reading about the random sample made me think about inspections I have been through while serving in the Navy. The inspectors base the results from a small sample of information from our records, will give them an idea of how we run our programs. If the small sample is good to go, they will stop looking and move to the next program. This difference and the size of the difference tells the inspectors a lot. This concept sounds like the material we had to read for this week’s lecture. While I am sure it is not exactly the same it felt like they are similar in the approach.

The inspecting of these differences will determine if we need to look deeper or realize there is nothing significant and move on. This can be done with the t-test, that measures the mean, which is a type of inferential statistic (Siegle, 2015). Something we did not talk too much about last week, but it is used for a population that we take a random sample from and infer about the rest of the population based on the sample. The f-test measures variance in data. While I understand the meaning of the tests and their purpose, I will say that I am still confused as to what conclusion we will find after the test and how to determine if we will continue to look or do something else. For a better understanding maybe, I will see the difference while working the problem in excel. It is difficult to understand the material without the whole picture and information. All of the information once applied I hope will bring to life the picture, we are trying to paint to have a better understanding. Will the hypothesis testing process answer questions of the data from last week or is it another clue?

Siegle, D. (2015, May 22). t Test. Retrieved from https://researchbasics.education.uconn.edu/t-test/#