The t-test is used to assess the difference in what between two groups?

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The t-test assesses the difference in the means between two groups. It asks whether the average outcome in one group is statistically different from the average in the other, taking into account data variability and sample size. The test computes a t-statistic based on the difference between the two sample means divided by an estimate of the standard error; a larger absolute t value (with a small p-value) indicates a true difference in population means. There are two common forms: independent-samples t-test for two unrelated groups and paired t-test for measurements taken on the same subjects.

This is distinct from looking at correlations (which measures association between variables), differences in proportions (typically analyzed with tests for categorical data like chi-square), or comparing variances across more than two groups (which uses F-tests in ANOVA).