Series: For Dummies
Paperback: 408 pages
Publisher: For Dummies; 2 edition (June 7, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1119293529
ISBN-13: 978-1119293521
Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (176 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #4,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #11 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics > Statistics #14 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Applied > Probability & Statistics
Although my work has kept me hip deep in statistics for the past 25-odd years, I'm always faced with having to educate new hires and interns on the basics. That's always been a challenge since I either make it so simple that they don't become sufficiently comfortable with the tools they need, or I make it so complicated that they just glaze over.So, thought this would help me create a more effective lesson plan. I had one past experience with the "dummy" book series and was not all that impressed. But, this was a very different story - it actually is a pretty decent primer on stats! No, it's not going to take the place of an intro stats class, nor will you be able to pass yourself off as a statistician even if you memorize the entire tome. But it does give a good grounding in the basic tools, and does so in a clear, easily understood manner.I see the main user of this book as someone who needs to use stats in his/her job, and is not all that comfortable with basic concepts and how stats should/should not be used or interpreted. I don't see this as being much help to someone who is taking a stats course at anything above the junior high (or perhaps high school) level.Granted, some of the book is more filler than instructive. I found the chapters on graphics to be rather useless - the space could have been put to better use by having additional examples for some of the more complicated routines, such as regressions.But overall, a very good primer to have at hand if you're a business stat user and it has been a while since you sat in a stats course.
When I took statistics in college there was no book assigned. And from past experiences, the "For Dummies" books explain concepts better than my college textbooks. So I ordered it, and it helped me tons! It well explained concepts, was great to reference, and easy to understand.I often have to use statistics for data analysis for my other classes, (I studied Political Science and Sociology) and this book was great to have on hand to reference. I recommend.
I bought this book in a panic of my statistics class that started in January. Read the whole book before christmas break was over.When the class actually started I found it to be a great reference, when I was unclear on some of my lecture materials. This book offers a real easy to understand, everyday situation that allows an individual to relate to statistics. Good read, even better price.
Next week, about 30 high school science teachers will be taking the last of a series of five workshops intended to help them be more skilled. My task as #5 is to tune 'em up in statistics. I wanted a book they could take with them, one that was (1) relatively affordable, (2) a go-to in finding an appropriate approach to a wide range of statistical questions, and (3) reasonably up-to-date. After considerable search, I concluded this was likely to be a best fit.So why "Statistics for Dummies?"-- Most statistics books seemed to be either too-brief pamphlets or really really expensive texts. At the new book price of around $12, this sure seemed relatively affordable for the amount of information--Very good coverage of descriptive statistics, probability in theory & practice, inferential statistics for parametric situations, and clear strong apt advice to help achieve sound use of statistics and avoid some of the horrors, such as significance trolling.There are 21 chapters, organized into three sections --Part 1 (Vital Statistics About Statistics), Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, including everyday applications and tools of the trade such as definitions of variable, popularion, and confidence interval --Part II (Number-Crunching Basics), Chapters 5, 6, 7, on central tendency, graphing categorical data, graphing numerical data --Part IIII ( Distributions and the Central Limit Theorem), Chapters 8, 9, 10, 11 introducing random variables and the binomal distribution, the normal distribution, and the t-distribution, sampling distributions and the central limit theorem -- Part IV (Guestimating and Hypothesizing with Confidence) Chapters 12, 13, 14, 15, covering confidence concepts & indicators, p value concepts & applications, hypothesis testing formulae and examples --Part V ( Statistics Studies and the Hunt for a Meaningful Relationship) with Chapters 16, 17, 18, and 19 dealing mostly with correlations and regression for quantitative, normally distributed data, two-way tables and probabilities --Part VI is two bonus chapters, one on data sleuthing and the other on "ten surefire ways to boost your statistics exam score."There's a good index and an appendix with the Z-table, the t-table, a set of bionomial tables up to n=20 each with a page of specific instructions on how to get p values or otherwise use the three tables. In all, 370 pages in the style---typography, side icons, and profuse examples including worked-out computations, of the 'for dummies" series.ANY ALERTS? Yes.--As other reviewers have eloquently said, this is suuplementary, an adjunct, a source-book text not a substitute for a full-on course in statistics. However, it seems great for purposes such as mine where I can give the students sections to read and pages for finding...as handy for my own use--BOOK II IS NEEDED!!!! There is little on non-parametric measures beyond offering the median, mode, sem-interquartile range and such. Statistics for Dummies ii (which I review separately) is 390 pages covering the Chi Square test and its varied applications, as well as signed ranks, Kruskal-wallis, and the somewhat more advanced analyses such as regression, multiple regression, ANOVA, MANOVA, and dealing with non-linearity. Yes, there is some overlap but II is worth i's relatively low costOVERALL: The American Statistical Association released in March 2016 its first ever institutional statement on a major statistical policy (Wasserman and Lazar, The ASA's statement on p-values: context, process, and purpose.) This is NOT a book but a free. downloadable statement and does not compete with the published text such as "Statistics for Dummies."Some reviewers were concerned about a possible over-emphasis on warnings, advice, and no-nos as maybe filler material. So I cross-walked the ASA policy statements on p values re context, process, and purpose. EVERY ITEM ASA emphasized is covered in this book, vividly, often, and appropriately. To me, that's underscoring author Deborah J. Rumsey's mastery of her material and ability to communicate it --- and of a certain ESP since this book was written well-before the ASA statement.Thank you, Professor Rumsey.Bottom line: I highly recommend "Statistics for Dummies."
Back in my college days I had a phobia called "Statistics-itis". My Stats class made me feel sick, so often didn't go to class. Then when I repeated the class again the next year, my phobia was still there with me.Now here I am all these years later out in the corporate business world. Strangely I've noticed that I've become more fond of Statistics as the years have progressed. Without quantitative data/analysis to back up assumptions, decisions are made based upon qualitative considerations and I've noticed that the victors usually tend to be the most convincing arguers (even if those are truly not the best decisions available). So, more and more I've been trying to use data/analysis to support my positions...which has meant putting my past behind me and facing my Statistics-itis phobia.I've took a stats class earlier this year and now I have obtained this Stats For Dummies book as a handy desk reference I can use. I'm really just doing basic Stats stuff like confidence levels and identifying outliers, but it is helpful to me to have a quick book to check back with to make sure I'm doing this stuff right - and Stats For Dummies is helping me with this. Who knows - maybe I'll become even braver and venture into some more advanced concepts!?Overall, I give this book 5-stars based on accomplishing objective of being basic reference guide and for price/value. At only $13 bucks this is a good investment in yourself if you think you can leverage more of this stuff.
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