The static and fatigue tensile tests have been conduted to predict the fatigue life of 8-harness satin woven and plain woven carbon/epoxy composite plates containing a circular hole. A fatigue residual strength degradation model, based on the assumption that the residual strength for unnotched specimen decreases monotonically, has been applied to predict statistically the fatigue life of materials used in this study. To determine the parameters(c, b and K) of the residual strength degradation model, the minimization technique and the maximum likelihood method are used. Agreement of the converted ultimate strength by using the minimization technique with the static ultimate strength is reasonably good. Therefore, the minimization technique is more adjustable in the determination of the parameter and the prediction of the fatigue life than the maximum likelihood method.