The answer by @Dave2e is fine (+1), but I wanted to give an Answer based mainly on a specific example. Consider the following fictitious data: set.seed(2022) x1 = rnorm(30, 350, 50) x2 = rnorm(30, 300, 70) summary(x1); length(x1); sd(x1) Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. 205.0 309.6 346.7 344.2 379.2 410.6 [1] 30 # sample size [1] 46.29298 # sample SD summary(x2); length(x2); sd(x2) Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. 190.9 281.3 310.5 307.6 353.5 418.5 [1] 30 [1] 58.53848 Now, do a two sample Welch t test of $H_0: \mu_1=\mu_2$ against $H_a: \mu_1 > \mu_2,$ using `t.test` in R: t.test(x1,x2, alt="gr") Welch Two Sample t-test data: x1 and x2 t = 2.6864, df = 55.074, p-value = 0.004764 alternative hypothesis: true difference in means is greater than 0 95 percent confidence interval: 13.8086 Inf sample estimates: mean of x mean of y 344.2034 307.5991 The P-value of the test is computed by looking in the upper tail of Student's t distribution with 55.074 degrees of freedom. [DF is adjusted downward from $n_1+n_2-2=58$ to compensate for the difference in sample variances.] 1 - pt(2.6864, 55.074) [1] 0.004764504 [In R, `pt` is a CDF of Student's t distribution.] The P-value is the area under the density curve to the right of the vertical dotted red line. [![enter image description here][1]][1] R code for figure: curve(dt(x, 55.074), -4, 4, ylab="Denssity", xlab="t", main=hdr) abline(h=0, col="green2") abline(v=0, col="green2") abline(h= 2.6864, col="red", lwd=2, lty="dotted") abline(v= 2.6864, col="red", lwd=2, lty="dotted") If you do a 2-sided t test, then the P-value is calculated by looking both in the lower tail below $-2.6864$ and in the upper tail above $2.6864.$ [By using `$`-notation, we show only the P-value.] t.test(x1, x2)$p.val [1] 0.009528523 This P-value for a 2-sided test is computed as follows: pt(-2.6864, 55.074) + 1 - pt(2.6864, 55.074) # left tail + right tail [1] 0.009529008 Alternatively, using the symmetry of the t distribution: 2*pt(-2.6864, 55.074) $ Double left tail probability [1] 0.009529008 _Note:_ Quantities in the output of the test are rounded slightly to save space, so there is a tiny discrepancy with the P-values shown just above. However, if you get confused (easy to do), and ask for the wrong side, using parameter `alt="less"` in `t.test`, then you get a nonsense P-value near $1.$ t.test(x1, x2, alt="less")$p.val [1] 0.9952357 [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/MXump.png