Step 1 :Given that the test is two-tailed, the significance level \(\alpha = 0.01\) is divided by 2. So, we have \(\alpha/2 = 0.01/2 = 0.005\).
Step 2 :We look up the value in the t-distribution table that corresponds to a tail probability of 0.005 and degrees of freedom \(df = n - 1 = 20 - 1 = 19\).
Step 3 :The critical value from the t-distribution table is approximately \(\pm 2.861\).
Step 4 :Therefore, the critical value is \(\boxed{\pm 2.861}\).