{"id":2306,"date":"2025-06-11T10:38:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T05:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/?p=2306"},"modified":"2025-06-26T14:54:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T09:24:38","slug":"what-happens-if-the-validation-and-test-datasets-are-the-same-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/2025\/06\/11\/what-happens-if-the-validation-and-test-datasets-are-the-same-size\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens if the validation and test datasets are the same size?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\ud83d\ude4c Let\u2019s explain what happens if the <strong>validation and test datasets are the same size<\/strong> \u2014 in a simple way<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2696\ufe0f Can Validation and Test Sets Be the Same Size?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, they <strong>can be the same size<\/strong> \u2014 <strong>but it&#8217;s not about size<\/strong>, it&#8217;s about <strong>purpose<\/strong> \ud83c\udfaf<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, even if they have the <strong>same number of samples<\/strong>, their <strong>roles are very different<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83e\uddea Validation Set \u2013 What\u2019s It For?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Used <strong>during training<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Helps you <strong>tune<\/strong> the model and make choices (like stopping early or changing learning rate)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It\u2019s like a <strong>practice test<\/strong> \ud83d\udcdd<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83c\udf93 Test Set \u2013 What\u2019s It For?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Used <strong>after training is completely done<\/strong> \u2705<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It gives you the <strong>final score<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No changes should be made based on test results \u274c\ud83d\udd27<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It\u2019s like the <strong>final exam<\/strong> \ud83c\udf93<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83e\udd14 What If They&#8217;re the Same Size?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s totally fine! \u2705<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s say you split your data like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>60% \u27a1\ufe0f Training \ud83e\udde0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>20% \u27a1\ufe0f Validation \ud83e\uddea<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>20% \u27a1\ufe0f Test \ud83c\udf93<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Here, <strong>validation and test are equal in size<\/strong>, and that\u2019s perfectly okay! \ud83d\udc4c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udeab What You Should NOT Do<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the danger \u2757<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Don\u2019t <strong>use the same dataset<\/strong> for both validation and test.<br>\u27a4 That would give you a <strong>false sense of performance<\/strong> \ud83d\ude2c<br>\u27a4 Your model would \u201cpeek\u201d at the answers!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83d\udcdb Same data \u2795 used for both validation &amp; test = \u274c Bad idea<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83e\udde0 Summary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>\u2705 Okay<\/th><th>\u274c Not Okay<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Validation &amp; Test same <strong>size<\/strong><\/td><td>Validation &amp; Test are the <strong>same data<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Each used for different purpose<\/td><td>Using test set during training<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Helps with balance and fairness \u2696\ufe0f<\/td><td>Hurts your model&#8217;s honesty \ud83d\ude48<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ud83d\ude4c Let\u2019s explain what happens if the validation and test datasets are the same size \u2014 &hellip; <a title=\"What happens if the validation and test datasets are the same size?\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/2025\/06\/11\/what-happens-if-the-validation-and-test-datasets-are-the-same-size\/\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What happens if the validation and test datasets are the same size?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[641],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-machine-learning"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/13.png?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2373,"href":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions\/2373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/texpertssolutions.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}