Rating: 
Summary: Extremely long winded and wordy...
Review: ...nothing is explained with much elegance or in a concise manner. I used this book for an introductory/applied statistics course. The authors have a knack for explaining the concepts in the most long winded and roundabout manner possible. They are wordy to the extent that it is difficult to follow the progression of specific topics. Additionally, they have a hard time sepearating examples from the text in the way that future understanding in a section is dependent on reading the examples. Could be a MUCH better book if it were about a quarter the current length. I used this for a college class; would be more fit for a high school stat class.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely long winded and wordy...
Review: ...nothing is explained with much elegance or in a concise manner. I used this book for an introductory/applied statistics course. The authors have a knack for explaining the concepts in the most long winded and roundabout manner possible. They are wordy to the extent that it is difficult to follow the progression of specific topics. Additionally, they have a hard time sepearating examples from the text in the way that future understanding in a section is dependent on reading the examples. Could be a MUCH better book if it were about a quarter the current length. I used this for a college class; would be more fit for a high school stat class.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good for first-time learner of statistics
Review: I agree with the previous reviewer Jason --- this book is very good in helping a first-time learner understand statistics applied to real-life situations. Usually university teachers don't make good choices for course textbooks but in this case, this book is absolutely the most correct choice.
Rating:
Summary: poorly written text
Review: I used this book as a text for a very large (~150 students) first-semester course in biostatistics for public health grad students. It is lavishly illustrated and has huge problem sets at the end of each chapter. It uses lots of examples. I did not think it did a good job of either conveying either intution or theory. Many definitions are far short of rigorous, and students seemed dissatisfied with the resulting uncertainty. The problems are far too repititive. I would prefer a more terse book which provides definitions and theorems that actually can be used.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't convey insight
Review: I used this book as a text for a very large (~150 students) first-semester course in biostatistics for public health grad students. It is lavishly illustrated and has huge problem sets at the end of each chapter. It uses lots of examples. I did not think it did a good job of either conveying either intution or theory. Many definitions are far short of rigorous, and students seemed dissatisfied with the resulting uncertainty. The problems are far too repititive. I would prefer a more terse book which provides definitions and theorems that actually can be used.
Rating: 
Summary: Not good for understanding Statistics
Review: If you are trying to learn Statistics on your own, make another choice. I took a Statistics course via distance learning, and this book did a lousy job explaining the material.
Rating:
Summary: Great intro statistics text
Review: Moore and McCabe is a great textbook for an introductory 1 semester course in statistics. The text is clear and not cluttered with unnecessary details. The examples are accompanied by many colorful charts and graphs/plots. They take a more "classical" approach to teaching statistics (which appears to be falling out of favor) but the book is very good.
Rating:
Summary: Great intro statistics text
Review: Moore and McCabe is a great textbook for an introductory 1 semester course in statistics. The text is clear and not cluttered with unnecessary details. The examples are accompanied by many colorful charts and graphs/plots. They take a more "classical" approach to teaching statistics (which appears to be falling out of favor) but the book is very good.
Rating: 
Summary: A perfectly good introductory book
Review: This book follows the standard format of descriptives to probability to inference, with many examples and exercises. It is perfectly suitable for a course containing a mix of students who may or may not continue their studies in statistics, but is otherwise unremarkable.
Rating: 
Summary: take another look
Review: This introductory statistics book is unlike any other I read, so it is understandable why it received negative reviews. First off, it deals with "the practice" of statistics, so don't expect mathematical explanations of the statistical analyses presented. Second, it thoroughly explains the conceptual basis and applied aspects of statistics, so don't be surprised if it is a bit more wordy or repetitive than other statistics books. Reenforcement is necessary when learning a new language, and it doesn't assume mathematical formulas are understandable without explanations. Its highlight is its coverage of collecting data. Most statistics books don't even mention how data is collected, or should be collected; they only show you how to analyze it. General principles of sampling and experimentation are licidly covered, as are the implications of using these two fundamentally different approaches to research. The second strong point of this book is its general overview of statistics. It shows how different analyses are used for different types of data (categorical vs. quantitative), although the general premise is the same--relationship between variables. Finally, it makes a connection between real data and theoretical distributions. Most statistics books start off saying, "assume the data follow a normal distribution" but real data never does. Moore and McCabe explains how we can use a mathematical formula to model our real data, and the advantages and limitations of doing so. This is the bridge necessary to place the theoretical world of probability and mathematical statistics into the real world of research and data analysis. This is still my favorite introductory statistics book, it is unique and inciteful, while others are clones and impractical. It is for researchers, not statisticians. If you are a researcher and have reviewed many introductory statistics books you will see the value of this one in explaining how statistics work, instead of just showing formulas.
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