The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics [Mass Market Paperback]

Robert A. Donnelly Jr. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1592571999 | ISBN-13: 978-1592571994 | Publication Date: May 4, 2004

Every year 472,000 college students enroll in a statistics course. The odds are good they'll need some help.

Aimed at high school and college students who need to take statistics to fulfill a degree requirement, this book follows a standard statistics curriculum with topics that include frequency distributions, probability, binomial distribution, poisson distribution, normal distribution, hypothesis testing, simple regression analysis, and more.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert A. Donnelly Jr. earned a Ph.D. in Operations Research and has been teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses at Goldey-Beacom College since 1993. A recipient of the Faculty Service Award in 2000, he has made several business presentations to the American Management Association and has been involved in a variety of management consulting activities, including projects for Alpha Owens Corning Corporation and the DuPont Company.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Alpha (May 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592571999
• ISBN-13: 978-1592571994
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #620,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Right mix of everything, January 25, 2005

By 

Mark Meyer (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics (Mass Market Paperback)

I am reading this to brush up on my very weak and ancient knowledge of stats. If only books like this were available in 1978 when I took statistics! Recently I looked at my college textbook. What a horrible yawn it is!! Yuck! These "Complete Idiots Guides" are really excellent because they are not so huge and overwhelming, yet they have the mainstream stuff that most of us need.

The humor helps, too, and the author's website has cute pictures of his family members, who figure into the book's examples. It is surprising how much a picture helps!

I've worked through almost the whole book and it was really just what I needed. My only suggestion (outside of a few
typo fixes) is to provide more exercises, possibly with only
the answers, not the whole worked-out solutions. Keep the
worked-out problems that are there, though! There is nothing
that firms up one's knowledge better than doing problems, and
seeing the correct answers.

So I recommend this book both to college students who are suffering, as well as to busy professionals who need a refresher and can't devote hundreds of hours.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly effective and fun way to learn, January 13, 2006

By 

C. Waldorf (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics (Mass Market Paperback)

I purchased this book last summer when I was away on a project and didn't have my undergraduate statistics book with me. Once I started reading this I was amazed at how clearly and simply the concepts are explained in a way that is fun (for example, in one humorous anecdote the author provides a way for his wife to use statistics to beat him in tennis).

While my undergraduate textbook was very well done, this book I found much more effective because it made the subject matter both relevant to everyday life in a very straightforward and enjoyable way.

Too often books used in the classroom try to be overly serious and end up making subjects unnecessarily complex. The result is that after taking a class on the subject, one doesn't want to see the subject matter again and one isn't motivated to learn more. The result is that one rapidly forgets what the course taught. That is truly a shame since one needs to learn continuously throughout life. This book is an excellent antidote if you are having or have had this sort of experience.

From the complete novice to someone who has seen statistics before, I would highly recommend this fun and clear book as an excellent way to learn statistics and as a reference.

Thank you for your great work Mr. Donnelly!

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great reference book!, March 31, 2006

By 

Erika Marsillac (Toledo, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics (Mass Market Paperback)

Having just started a PhD program after years in the "real world", my statistics skills were well beyond rusty... Fortunately, this book took me from "rusty" to passing my Advance Multivariate Statistics class with an A-!
The practical and everyday illustrations of complex statistical concepts really help you understand the basics of statistics. And the author's humorous family examples even make the subject interesting... Normally, statistics and interesting aren't even found in the same sentence, but Dr. Donnelly manages and excels at it bringing everything together in an easy to follow guide. A great buy and definitely recommended...