Customer Reviews

Elementary Statistics (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was assigned this book for use in teaching an introductory statistics course. The CD is quite good, containing a PowerPoint presentation outline for each chapter. It also has a section of excellent examples, but it only goes through the first three chapters, which is unfortunate.

Each chapter begins with a "Chapter Case Study", which I found to be worthless. The text and examples in each section & chapter are pretty good, about what would be expected from a textbook. What is different is the "Technology Instructions" inserted throughout, for doing stats with Minitab, Excel XP, and the TI-83 Plus calculator (which my school requires). It's needed, because the TI-83 manual is not very good.

Where the book could be better, for my class, is in describing how a student can verify his/her own work. Too many times students make a small mistake early in a problem, which leads to a non-sensical answer -- if the student stops to evaluate the meaning of it (for example, a probability greater than 1). Particularly in hypothesis testing, students frequently build the null and alternative hypotheses backwards, and then end up with a conclusion statement that clearly contradicts the data. While this book is very clear about a five-step approach to *doing* the test, it should have included a sixth step -- verifying that your answer makes sense!

Also, some of the problems and examples have errors, as well as vaguely worded questions. This seems to be (unfortunately) typical of all textbooks -- or maybe I'm just jaded.

Overall, it's a pretty decent book for a lower-level college statistics course. I would have given it 3.5 stars on its own. The CD is worth the extra half-star. If the CD examples went beyond chapter 3 through the whole book it would get five.

Explanations of concepts are constantly interrupted mid-paragraph by various secondary explanations, questions and diagrams that do not tie in well with the central concept that was being explained. I find it very difficult to follow when each page is scattered with little side projects for the student to try with the cd-rom or with a calculator. Just glancing at any page it is hard to find the heart of the material. I much prefer a text that focuses on straight forward explanations of concepts rather than what seems to me as mere gimmicks.

The book is very good but there is not CD as described in the advertisement.