Rating: 
Summary: Illogic organization and non-intuitive explanation
Review: i'm not sure whether it's useful as a reference, but it's far from being a good textbook. obviously the authors didn't care to explain anything clearly. all they wanted was to write down all the relevant formulas to finish their book. no intuition is given at all. it's a pain to read and i would recommend both instructors and students NOT to use this book.
Rating: 
Summary: mediocre text not worth the money
Review: I've never owned any other texts on probability and statistics, but this one is no good. The underlying mathematical concepts are not difficult, but they are presented in a very poor manner. I often have to read a section several times to understand how the authors move from the theory to a specific examples, they seem to leave out steps that aren't intuitive to the first time student (me). Then, once I think I undestand the ideas sufficiently to move to the exercises at the end of the section, I find that they often ask the reader to solve problems the likes of which were barely (or sometimes not at all) explained in the text... its VERY aggrevating. This text, combined with a terrible Prof. has made Prob-Stat a real nightmare ...if you want to safe yourself a lot of time and frustration, get another book, its almost garaunteed to be better.....
Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: If this is the 6th edition, I don't want to see the 1st edition! This book takes the simplest concepts and makes them convoluted and confusing; it lacks proper organization and repeats similar concepts chapter after chapter.Please, if you are a professor looking at using this book to teach a class, consider others. I don't understand why it is so popular.
Rating:
Summary: Infer This!
Review: The only thing this book is an education in is how to figure things out on your own. Its explanation are either usually incomplete are unnecessarily complex. And as observed by a previous reader, the text does not provide nearly enough knowledge to solve some of the problems at end of each section. If you are a professor, please dump this book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this book!
Review: There are good books on probability and statistical inference. This isn't one of them! If you are hunting for something - look for authors like James T. McClave or P. George Benson. James McClave has written some good books in this area. Examples are HARD TO FOLLOW. There is no development of concepts. The writer doesn't seem to have any idea how to explain or how to provide examples. THIS IS NOT A BOOK THAT NORMAL PEOPLE CAN UNDERSTAND! IF YOU LIKE MATH OR WOULD LIKE TO UNDERSTAND MATH - DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! It does provide an example of what a book shouldn't look like!
Rating: 
Summary: good, but at a price
Review: this is a fair book. It is being used here as a lower level graduate text. There are few illustrations and pictures, and the reading is usually dry. My book fell apart within 3 weeks! The examples are good and virtually every important result is proved. Good book, with problems.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book on statistical inference
Review: This is a wonderful book to introduce Probability and Statistical Inference to students with some background in calculus. The contents of the book start with summary and display of data, then gradually move to estimation, hypothesis testing, linear model and non-parametric methods. Several lists of distributions, confidence intervals and tests of hypothesis are given in the book. Many interesting examples are chosen to introduce some abstract concepts in probability and statistics. This book is not only useful as a text book but also useful as a reference book for further study.
Rating:
Summary: Partial review...
Review: This reviewer feels compelled to comment after completing only through chapter 5. Why? Because, like another reviewer's book, this one had "fallen apart" midway through a semester's work! The sections became unglued from the book's spine. Since this reviewer does not abuse books, one might question whether Prentice Hall buys inferior glue. The book's premium price demands a more sturdy product. Otherwise, the copious exercises of varying difficulty comprise the text's greatest asset (so far). More to follow at the end of next semester!
Rating:
Summary: not fit for teaching
Review: While studying statistics with this book I thougth I lack a gene or something because I couldn't make much sense of the subject. Today I know that the book is conceptually wrong. The book is basically stuck in the 1930's, ignoring major breakthroughs by Shannon, Kolmogorov and others. Fundamental concepts like entropy, individual randomness and typicallity are completely missing. Furthermore, the book is heavily biased towards hypothesis testing, with little mentioning of Bayesian statistics. From a pedagogic point of view it must be said that statistical concepts emerged historically and are better understood when placed in the context of the original problems. This book does not do that at all.
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