What Comparative Questions Should I Use to Explore Data?

When exploring a dataset, you might want to compare the distributions of different variables.

Here are some good questions to ask when exploring comparisons between distributions:

  1. Are the distributions similar or different? This question helps you understand if the variables are similar or different in terms of their distribution. For example, “Do the test scores of boys and girls have similar distributions?”
  2. What is the range of each distribution? This question helps you understand how spread out the data is in each distribution. For example, “What is the range of salaries for different job titles?”
  3. What is the average or mean of each distribution? This question helps you understand what the typical value is for each distribution. For example, “What is the average number of hours worked per week for different age groups?”

By asking these kinds of questions, you can start to compare the distributions of different variables and gain insights into how they are similar or different.

For example, if you’re comparing the distributions of test scores between Class A and Class B, you might ask questions like: “Do the distributions have similar ranges?” “Do the distributions have similar averages?” “Is there a difference in the median test score between Class A and Class B?”