While many PhD students involved in research may not know a lot about statistical tools and techniques, it can be of huge benefit if you hold this knowledge. Your awareness of analytical methods and statistical software can give you an edge over other research fellows. Through such knowledge, you can give your research an appropriate design.
Even if you have basic knowledge of statistical testing and research types, you can set the right hypotheses and methodology for your study. It can further help you in choosing the relevant methods of sampling, data collection, and data analysis and interpretation. Whether you are working on a qualitative or quantitative research, the knowledge of statistics can make you design reliable tools of data collection on your own.
You will not only be able to design surveys, but also come up with relevant questionnaires that help you in capturing the required data in a proper manner. Understanding statistics can make your write such questions for your survey or interview that are appropriate for a specific sample type or subjects. Even complex data filtering and analysis becomes easier for you when you know the tests to be applied to your data.
In addition, you can swiftly make use of the statistical software package recommended by your academic institution. You will also be able to choose such software on your own, so you can conduct the required tests faster and more efficiently. Knowing statistics not only makes you pull out the right reports for your findings, but also helps you in doing an apt interpretation of results. You will understand the involved issues better in order to find correct solutions to your problems.
Thus, statistical knowledge makes you find custom solutions to various issues faced at each stage of your research. If you have time to do some analytical study along with your research, then you should surely think of picking up a book on statistics.
