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Rating: 
Summary: Invaluable reference; Not for pleasure reading
Review: Hays's text is not meant for everyone; hence the mixed reviews. It was not the primary source from which I gained my knowledge of statistics; however it serves as an invaluable reference. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I had little difficulty understanding the material as Hays presented it. Some of the criticisms are points well-taken; for example a lack of annotation in the power tables at the end of the book (which are still decipherable if you know what you're looking at).This text is for the mathematically inclined-it is not a "how-to" book, rather a "why" book that thoroughly explains the theory behind a variety of popular inferential techniques. If this is the sort of knowledge you are seeking, Hays is the book for you. If you are interested in a more "common-sense" or applied approach, perhaps you should look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful as a reference, not as a book to learn from
Review: I agree with Van Denburg's evaluation. I am a graduate student in Psychology, and I find the Hays text mostly illegible. His prose is dense and his explanations rely very heavily on mathematical formulae instead of real-world or logical/verbal descriptions. Furthermore, he falls into the typical "math textbook" pit of giving solutions to only the example problems that are exceptions to what one would usually encounter. This is especially bad considering that my concentration specializes in statistical inference, and I've studied mathematics through differential equations (including linear algebra, multivariate). Worse, Hays has a tendency to use different symbols to represent variables compared to other statistical texts (and in some cases, the rest of the world!) Lastly, the tables that Hays has in the back of his book are not notated. He does not explain what each table represents, or what the x or y axis are. In one case, he has two entries for each lookup in the ANOVA Power of Association (omega squared) (Table XII, page 1032). Nowhere in the table does it mention what these two values are for. It is only in one paragraph 600 pages earlier, that he explains that the two values are for alpha=0.05 and 0.01 and that n must be equal for both groups!! (page 410) I am currently relying on several other texts to understand statistics for the social/behaviourial sciences. If you are extremely comfortable with mathematics to describe your behaviourial tests, you may find this book valuable. If you prefer a more descriptive approach, I suggest another one.
Rating:
Summary: Books are like friends
Review: In contrast to and to balance with Eric Van Denburg's review, I have always found Hays's book transparent and easy to get on with. I still recommend students (speech therapy and human communication) to Statistics when they have questions not easily answered by their normal texts. Never have I had a complaint from them. It just goes to show that books are like friends - some people will get along well with a particular book, while others can't stand it.
Rating: 
Summary: Statistics Trauma
Review: Many graduate students in the social sciences (at least in my era) were forced to suffer through this awful text. While in his introduction Hays claims to want to reach the less mathematically inclined with his book, his indecipherable, dense prose has led many graduate students into intensive psychotherapy. Just ask any clinical psychology student of the 60s, 70s, and 80s what they think of this book, and you will hear moans, their heads will shake, and they may even shake involuntarily. I hope that current graduate students in the social sciences are still not being subjected to this Haysian torture device!
Rating:
Summary: Hays' book separates science from lay behavioral theories
Review: People in the behavioral area tend to have a lot to say about human behavior - seldom with proof what they say in terms of statistics, graphs and figures. Even if they do so (showing facts), you can - whilst asking how these "facts" have been gathered - get answers like "they stem from research" or "they are gathered by professionals". Hays book shows the reader how to do it and how to investigate concepts as "more than", "less than" and "differencies" - rinsed from guessing, prejudices and other political agendas. Or, in another words, separating science from lay theories. Of course this is not done without hard work and creative thinking, both is however needed to get the grasp of Statistics.
Rating: 
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: This text is a true CLASSIC in the field of statistics. It is unique, extremely well-written, and a book you will return to time after time if you are serious about learning and understanding statistics. Hays' unique style is such that in his explanations, he takes you a step back, then two steps forward. While it can be said that some writers on statistics don't really understand the subject themselves (which makes it almost impossible to learn from them), this is definitely not the case with Hays's text. Hays' grasp of statistics is unmatched.
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