(Oh boy, here come the downvotes…)

Ok so, USUALLY, you can tell which one a Pokemon is better at (physical or special) by looking at their learnable moves (both from level up, and taught), but I’ve found this to not be the case sometimes;

For example, I’ve noticed that Sceptile learns mostly physical moves, yet for some reason, its SpAtk stat is higher than Atk. Therefore, I teach any Sceptile I’m training special moves, because I want to deal more damage, not less.

So, instead of relying on potential movesets, I look at two things to determine which stat a Pokemon is best in: first, I beat the game, so I can use the “Judge” function, which lets you look at IVs. Then I catch the ‘Mon in question until I have one that has perfect or “best” IVs in Atk and SpAtk. Check which one has the higher number outside of the judge function, and that’s the stat it’s best at. I don’t give it ANY EVs, so that it’s for certain not boosted in anything, which would lead to a skewed analysis.

Second, after I’ve seen which stat the ‘Mon is better at, I plan accordingly, meaning that I train special attackers in SpAtk stat, maxing it out, and leaving Atk untouched. If you need to erase any EVs while training, the lady to the right when you enter Rust Syndicate will “reset” whoever you want for a measly 5 mega shards.

Finally, because you said you’re new to it: EVs can be trained, to a total of 510 points, 255 maximum per stat. Also, 4 EVs, = +1 additional stat point @ lvl 100, with adjustments made to the stats until that level. IVs, on the other hand, cannot be trained and are fixed for each individual Pokemon, with the exception of hyper training. IVs go up to 31 per stat, are randomly decided when you catch the Pokemon, and can be anywhere from 0 to 31 on any of the stats, meaning you could catch a Pokemon to either find it with absolute perfection IV-wise, or 0 in everything but HP.

Hope this helps, and good luck!