Sampling of Populations : Methods and Applications

Rating:
Summary: A response to an anonymous "osu stats student".
Review: I read the review by an anonymous "osu stats student," and felt compelled to write the following response.

I am a Ph.D. student in public health, and I already have a Ph.D. in the behavioral sciences. I will sign my name, unlike the other writer. Rather than solely talk about the issues of the text, the student complains about the administration of the course in question.

I found the text to be readable and useful. My findings concur with the practitioner and other reviewers in Columbus, OH. I found the use of the solutions manual to be helpful in my understanding of the material.

The complaints voiced by the "stats student" are unfounded and could possibly be "sour grapes," perhaps because that person's performance in the course was below what they thought they should have received.

Having been graduate faculty in the past, I can only suggest that if students have problems with understanding the course material, they need to take responsibility for their end of the learning process. They should have taken advantage of the resources made available by the instructor, and perhaps spent more time on the material and exercises to make up for their lack of understanding.

Rating:
Summary: A response to an anonymous "osu stats student".
Review: I read the review by an anonymous "osu stats student," and felt compelled to write the following response.

I am a Ph.D. student in public health, and I already have a Ph.D. in the behavioral sciences. I will sign my name, unlike the other writer. Rather than solely talk about the issues of the text, the student complains about the administration of the course in question.

I found the text to be readable and useful. My findings concur with the practitioner and other reviewers in Columbus, OH. I found the use of the solutions manual to be helpful in my understanding of the material.

The complaints voiced by the "stats student" are unfounded and could possibly be "sour grapes," perhaps because that person's performance in the course was below what they thought they should have received.

Having been graduate faculty in the past, I can only suggest that if students have problems with understanding the course material, they need to take responsibility for their end of the learning process. They should have taken advantage of the resources made available by the instructor, and perhaps spent more time on the material and exercises to make up for their lack of understanding.

Rating:
Summary: A Practitioner's Resource
Review: Levy and Lemeshow's text provides practitioners with precise formulas and terrific insights into alternative sampling methods. The exercises at the end of the chapters are particularly useful.

Rating:
Summary: Clear and to the point.
Review: The best thing about this book is that it summarizes all the equations in boxes throughout the book. Therefore you don't have to hunt down the equations you need, unlike with many other statistics books. The book's explanations are clear and to the point, and therefore makes a great desk reference.

The one sole downside to this text is its price. $90 is a bit steep for this small light weight volume.

Rating:
Summary: Try Sharon Lohr's book instead
Review: This book is horrible! We use it for a survey sampling class taught at Ohio State, where one of the authors is a dean. Every one I talk to in the class cannot stand this book. The previous time the course was taught, the class used Sharon Lohr's sampling book and everyone loved it. The exhorbitant price of Levy/Lemeshow's book makes things even worse.

Levy/Lemeshow's book falls short in terms of providing a real understanding of survey sampling. There is no "big picture" presented, only a series of formulas thrown at you to deal with various situations. There is no derviation of the formulas used. This would be fine, because the book is geared to those in public health. But then the exercises ask you to derive formulas. Without examples, this is impossible. Some of the students in the class are PhD statistics students, and even they do not understand where these formulas come from.

The book uses a lot of public health jargon (e.g. incidence, HIV seroconversion). This creates a lot of confusion, particularly for the exercises.

My advice: if you are in the public health field, are not interested in the exercises, and just want a cookbook of equations, go ahead and try this book. If you are interested in the mechanics of survey sampling, and where the formulas came from, then look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Try Sharon Lohr's book instead if you want the math
Review: We used this book for a survey sampling class taught at Ohio State. Many of the students did not like this book. I talked to several stat students who used Sharon Lohr's sampling book, and they loved it. The exhorbitant price of Levy/Lemeshow's book makes things even worse.

Levy/Lemeshow's book falls short in terms of providing a real understanding of survey sampling. There is no "big picture" presented, only a series of formulas thrown at you to deal with various situations. There is no derviation of the formulas used. This would be fine, because the book is geared to those in public health. But then the exercises ask you to derive formulas. Without examples, this is impossible. Some of the students in the class are PhD statistics students, and even they do not understand where these formulas come from.

The book uses a lot of public health jargon (e.g. incidence, HIV seroconversion). This creates a lot of confusion, particularly for the exercises. One of the most frustrating aspects of the book is that the STATA code is missing characters (e.g. parentheses, commas) that make it work correctly.

My advice: if you are in the public health field, are not interested in the exercises, and just want a cookbook of equations, this book would be good for you. If you are interested in the mechanics of survey sampling, and where the formulas came from, then look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Try Sharon Lohr's book instead if you want the math
Review: We used this book for a survey sampling class taught at Ohio State. Many of the students did not like this book. I talked to several stat students who used Sharon Lohr's sampling book, and they loved it. The exhorbitant price of Levy/Lemeshow's book makes things even worse.

Levy/Lemeshow's book falls short in terms of providing a real understanding of survey sampling. There is no "big picture" presented, only a series of formulas thrown at you to deal with various situations. There is no derviation of the formulas used. This would be fine, because the book is geared to those in public health. But then the exercises ask you to derive formulas. Without examples, this is impossible. Some of the students in the class are PhD statistics students, and even they do not understand where these formulas come from.

The book uses a lot of public health jargon (e.g. incidence, HIV seroconversion). This creates a lot of confusion, particularly for the exercises. One of the most frustrating aspects of the book is that the STATA code is missing characters (e.g. parentheses, commas) that make it work correctly.

My advice: if you are in the public health field, are not interested in the exercises, and just want a cookbook of equations, this book would be good for you. If you are interested in the mechanics of survey sampling, and where the formulas came from, then look elsewhere.