Customer Reviews

Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World (Annotated Instructor's Edition)

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As someone who regularly teaches a course in basic statistics, I am always trolling for a better textbook. Since the coverage in basic statistics courses has changed very little in the last few decades, all of the potential textbooks cover essentially the same things. Therefore, when examining a book for possible adoption, I generally use three criteria in making my decision.

*) Does the book cover nonparametric tests?

*) Is the order of the coverage one that I consider appropriate?

*) Is the writing clear and the examples easy to follow?

I am generally not impressed by a large number of exercises at the end of sections and chapters. At times, I think that authors believe they are in some form of "arms race" in adding more and more exercises, many of which will never be read let alone solved by the majority of students.

This book passes all three of my decision criteria. The sign, Wilcoxson, Kruskal-Wallis, rank correlation and runs nonparametric tests are all covered in chapter 11. The order of coverage is well within my preferences and the examples are easy to follow. Answers to the odd numbered exercises are included in an appendix.

I have not yet made a decision regarding what book to use in my basic statistics course, as I have not yet examined all of my options. However, I certainly would be very comfortable using this book and I am sure my students would feel the same way.