Some Easy t Statistics

This article explores the use of t statistics based on two-or four-order statistics. The functions of the order statistics, which are used to define the t statistics, are the pivots and bipivots. The pivots are exact order statistics, while the bipivots are the means of two adjacent order statistics. Two t statistics, based on the pivots and bipivots, are examined and compared to other t statistics, including Student's t, under various sampling situations. We conclude that the proposed t statistics are not only simple to use but are robust and perform quite well in terms of the lengths of their confidence intervals. We recommend that these t statistics be used for sample sizes between 4 and 20, because they perform well and are easy to use. Tables of percentage points are provided to facilitate the use of the t statistics.