#useful
1️⃣Mean, Median, Mode
When data has extreme outliers like income or housing prices, the median tells a more honest story than the mean. Always ask which one actually represents your data best rather than defaulting to mean automatically.
2️⃣Sample Size
Too small and your results can't be trusted — you can't draw conclusions from 8 people. For survey-based student research, aim for at least 30 responses as an absolute minimum. 100 or more gives your findings real credibility.
3️⃣ Correlation
Measures how strongly two variables move together. Ranges from -1 to +1. Strong positive, strong negative, or no relationship. The most important thing to remember: correlation never proves causation. Two things happening together doesn't mean one caused the other.
4️⃣ P-value
Tells you whether your results are statistically significant or just random chance. Below 0.05 is the standard threshold — meaning less than a 5% probability your results happened by coincidence. You don't need to calculate this by hand — tools like Google Sheets, JASP, or Jamovi do it instantly.
5️⃣ Standard Deviation
How spread out your data is. A low standard deviation means most responses clustered close to the average. A high one means responses were all over the place. Neither is automatically good or bad — it depends entirely on what you're studying.
🆓 Free tools: JASP (jasp-stats.org) and Jamovi (jamovi.org) — both free, both beginner-friendly, both used by actual researchers.