Customer Reviews

Basic Biostatistics

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This has go to the most confusing book I have ever had. If you are not familiar with statistics and it is not my favorite subject, you will be lost. The format is confusing. Would not have been my first choice as the text for a biostats class.

Product as advertised in good condition. The book arrived at the estimated time provided. I was concerned that the book was not brand new, however all pages were in great condition.

This book was the most confusing text book I think I've ever read. As a beginner to stats it is a terrible book. Concepts are interrupted from one chapter and then picked up again in another, there a mistakes in the book - simple math errors, which were probably typos. I have relied more on the internet and the stats for dummies series to get through my course. I do not recommend this book for online courses especially - it is not a self teaching kind of book.

This book is just so so....its is very basic and would be a good resource for someone that is trying to review information. I would not suggest this for use as an introductory text.

When I first receive this book I thought that it is brand new, so the condition was awesome. regarding the contents it is primarly used by my wife, and she is happy with it so far, as she said it is easy to read and understand.

I agree with the below reviewer. The author is clearly intelligent; however, this book is written in a confusing fashion for beginners, even for the seemingly simplest of concepts (i.e. probability). The random interjections of graphs before concepts are fully explained makes for a very disjointed experience. I find myself turning to Google and random examples on the internet for elucidation, at which point the concepts seem much less intimidating/complicated than as presented in the book. After I solidly understand the concepts, the book description then makes much more sense! It's just not that initially accessible to beginners (as would be implied by the description "basic" in the title). A good reference, though.

I have used this text for 2 years for a 1-semester stats course for students in a Master of Public Health program. The readings are short and to the point. They have lots of excellent worked out problems. It is all very public health in orientation. It might not work well as a self-learn text, but as a textbook it works well. Plenty of problems each chapter, and solutions to half the problems in the back. The short readings are great since they are not intimidating. If the instructor isn't very good, then a book with more text to read might be better. The main problem I have with the text is that it doesn't cover logistic regression, which is very important and should have been included. The book also has some good data sets included.
reviewed by mendel singer of case western reserve university