can a test statistic be negative
Answers. Best Answer: When you do a t-test, you are comparing the data for one group to the data in another group. If the t value is positive, it means that the first group has a higher mean than the second group. If the t value is negative, the second group has a higher mean. In reality, it isn't very important whether the t-test is positive or negative as long as you report the means of each group, and it is acceptable to drop the negative sign when reporting the t value. Source(s):