Statistics for Dummies

Rating:
Summary: It's just okay
Review: A reasonable overview of the subject. Go down to your local community college, buy a $15 Texas Instrument ti-30x-II calculator, go on line and pull down a ti-30x-II pdf file for free and REALLY learn what you're looking at. Plus you get college credit for passing. "Stats for dummies" reminds me of a MBA in 12 hours course I once took. Oh yeah, you might have to invest some time using excel spreadsheets if the stats course is business related.

Rating:
Summary: It's just okay
Review: A reasonable overview of the subject. Go down to your local community college, buy a $15 Texas Instrument ti-30x-II calculator, go on line and pull down a ti-30x-II pdf file for free and REALLY learn what you're looking at. Plus you get college credit for passing. "Stats for dummies" reminds me of a MBA in 12 hours course I once took. Oh yeah, you might have to invest some time using excel spreadsheets if the stats course is business related.

Rating:
Summary: More of a professional level
Review: Deborah Rumsey has obviously written this book for the professional because there are no examples of any kind to be found in the book. If your looking for a book that shows examples of how to work the formulas for statistics then I highly recommend Shaum's Statistics third edition. Statistics for Dummies is a real disappointment to the dummies series of books.

Rating:
Summary: Lots missing
Review: I agree that this is a fair OVERVIEW. But where the entire Dummies series focuses on making complex topics simple and practical, this book fall short. For instance, there is very little value in the Probabilities section; the examples used as so simplistic that they cannot be applied by the reader to any larger question. Want to know the odds of something happening with multiple independent trials? Want to really understand games of chance or card games? Want to figure out for yourself the likelihood of being called on in class over the course of a week? This book can't help you answer these questions. No formulas for individual or multiple trials, dependent or independent events, or the like are presented to enable you to use the examples that are given.

As for general statistics, again this is a fair vehicle to understand statistics in their application, not so good at explaining how they are derived or allowing the reader to apply the information.

In the end I gave this book to my college-bound daughter and she will use it as a companion guide in her stats class. It remains to be seen whether it will add any value even there.

Not a waste of money for someone wanting to understand stats in the media and the like, but certainly a disappointment if you want a refresher on how to crunch the numbers yourself.

Rating:
Summary: What Statistics for Dummies is About
Review: Statistics for Dummies would be useful in a statistics class, but it is also easily accessible to the general public. The book contains a wide range of examples for any topic in the introductory statistics syllabus, as well as step-by-step explanations of all calculations needed. The book is also very useful for getting clear cut, intuitive explanations of statistical ideas. The index is a quick way to find whatever you are looking for.

Rating:
Summary: What Statistics for Dummies is About
Review: This author is great, and the book has helped me tremendously! There are tons of problems in the book, and the author walks us step by step through the calculations. If you want to understand statistics, I would recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Statistics for Dummies
Review: This author is great, and the book has helped me tremendously! There are tons of problems in the book, and the author walks us step by step through the calculations. If you want to understand statistics, I would recommend this book.