There are two types of statistical inferences: estimation of population parameters and hypothesis testing. Hypothesis testing is one of the most important tools of application of statistics to real life problems. Most often, decisions are required to be made concerning populations on the basis of sample information. Statistical tests are used in arriving at these decisions.

There are five ingredients to any statistical test :

(a) Null Hypothesis
(b) Alternate Hypothesis
(c) Test Statistic
(d) Rejection/Critical Region
(e) Conclusion

In attempting to reach a decision, it is useful to make an educated guess or assumption about the population involved, such as the type of distribution.

In this worksheet I have provided three examples regarding hypothesis testing of population mean. I will deal with population variance and oneway ANOWA in the near future.