Customer Reviews

Business Statistics: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides)

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The content of the book is fine. Koosis, the author, has a reasonable approach to teaching the innumerate some basic statistical skills. However, I'm none too thrilled by Wiley, the publishers, whose hyperbole fails significantly on two counts. Firstly,they say the book provides a chart that cross-references the content to a wide variety of statistics texts: wrong. It doesn't. This may have occurred in earlier editions, but it sure doesn't appear now. Given that this is what I was after, you can imagine my disappointment, living in Australia ( it being too much of an effort to seek a refund). Continuing on this theme of griping about the publishers, it should be noted that the companion volume by Mr Koosis, "Statistics", which I had ordered at the same time, looking for some complementary text, is almost identical to "Business Statistics" bar the content of some of the examples and one chapter (and a very short chapter it is too). So in my humble, Antipodean opinion, the publishers need to lift their game, and start practising a few quality principles, ideas about which they'll find in many of the books they publish. For another observable glitch by Wiley, see my comments about the book "Information Technology for Management" by E. Turban et al.

What I expected was a self-teaching guide that gradually exposes the user to statistical theory. What I got was the standard deviation formula on page 24 and it got deeper and deeper (these are very short pages with ample white space.) The writing isn't bad but the usage of Greek symbols is a bit overwhelming and unnecessary in this day in age. I thought the notations and formulas using popular spreadsheet programs helpful and would have like to seen more of it. After all business people rarely use binomial probability tables when you can get the answer in a spreadsheet table faster. I felt that this is not really a self-teaching guide for someone like myself, the last time I had any math was in high school algebra. Also, I could have used more work problems.

Overall not bad but not for the novice.