Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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...

You will not regret this purchase if you are a complete idiot to stat or absolutely terrified of stats. If you have money to buy one basic stat book Buy this one. I do not like the word basicbecause this book explains the major fundamental concepts.

I HATE statistics. I dont understand it. Once I read the word CHANCE i just go blank not to mention the Standard deviation. I would sit and think: who would want to make a "Law of large numbers" .
However I had to do statistics for my thesis, sure I can go on the computer and let SigmaStat do all the work , but I needed to understand what I was asking SigmaStat to do, plus I needed to know what to ask!
Got the book Friday afternoon, I am writing this review Sunday am. I have finished reading the book. It was humourous( Lord knows we need humour to do Statistics),but it was informative all the way.
THe book explained how to do the tests, why, which test is appropriate for which sample type and size.
When you are finished with this book two three things will happen
1. You will be disappiointed because the fun has ended.
2. You will be elated that you have finally conquered the beast of chi-square and ANOVA, etc.
3. You will be left wondering why all stat books are not written in this way.

If you are looking for advanced Stats eg. Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon's etc, this book does not go into that, but it is an EXCELLENT base to begin to understanding all the other fundamental tests before moving on to the advanced. He made the concept come to life with real life examples.

I think the author should consider doing an advanced version dealing with these other tests.... I cant wait!!!!!!!
NOW.... I HATED STATISTICS!!!

I have never taken a Statistics course before, and new little or nothing about Statistics! I read 3/4 of this book, studied the examples and worked out the problems. Two weeks after I purchased the book I took the CLEP exam for Elementary/Introductory Statistics, and passed! I highly recommend this book!

I recently purchased "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics" as a refresher prior to my reentry into the labor force. I had tried to use two textbooks that I had kept from my and my wife's college days. (It had been over 35 years since I had taken a statistics course in college.) While extremely detailed and very thorough, these old textbooks were not written for the casual reader and/or one who just wanted a quick and easy refresher course on some of the basic concepts of statistics.

I searched through several new statistics books at a book retailer to try to find one that offered the best combination of readability and `statistical enlightenment'. My search included several statistics exam reference books, "Statistics for Dummies ", and other similar reference books. After reviewing the treatment of the same topic in each text, I selected Professor Donnelly's book.

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics" provides both a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience and an easily understandable treatment of the subject matter. This book is one of the best combinations of education and entertainment that I have ever encountered. I can't imagine finding a better book if the objective is to help one quickly and easily obtain a better understanding of the basic concepts of statistics.

This book was more about the author showcasing his sense of humor than anything else. It wasn't much help because it was too vague and didn't completely explain all the necessary concepts. It was like he left out the rest of the story... A much better (and very helpful) book was "Statistics for the Utterly Confused:" by Lloyd Jaisingh
Paperback, 2006. This one was easier to understand and more thorough.

Since I'm starting graduate school, I needed to take a statistics exam in order to avoid taking a statistics prerequisite class. While I used to know much of this information, I completely forgot about eighty percent of it and I pretty much needed to learn from scratch. This book was great.

This stats book provides the basics - pretty much everything covered in an introduction to statistics class. The fluidity and ease of explanation makes this a great study book that can be read from front to back.

There were a few flaws. I found the beginning to be a little too slow and in depth for such simple concepts. The latter parts tended to blur together so that many of the same concepts seemed like they taught the same thing. I wish there was a wrap up for all the different concepts to make summarization easier. Also, a quick "cheat sheet" of formulas at the end and better some better summaries would have improved this book tremendously.

Overall, this is a good book and I recommend it for anyone who needs to brush up or quickly learn statistics.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics is a great reference for those with a statistics background and a wonderful learning aid for who may not be as familiar with statistical methods. The meat and potatoes of the concepts are clearly explained and well illustrated, supplemented with Excel how-to's.

This book replaces two textbooks that I kept at the office for reference on statistical methods. In fact, the book is so robust and easy to understand that we have developed an in-house stats and Excel seminar with The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics as the centerpiece.

This book is for anyone who is looking for an applied knowledge of statistical concepts!

I completely enjoyed reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics.

I love Bob's sense of humour and the way he draws from his own and his family's experiences to provide some fun examples of statistics in real life. My favourite is the bathroom counter example (chapter 20) which reminded me a lot of our bathroom.

Although I am now in a job that involves using statistics for improving business processes, I am not a natural mathematician. Bob treats non-mathematically inclined people like me with respect. His book explains the underlying concepts simply and clearly.