Customer Reviews

Essentials of Statistics (2nd Edition)

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

 

 

Triola's book is, for the most part, an excellent choice for an intro stats course. As an instructor, I find it relatively easy to work with, and the included STATDISK gives students many opportunities to analyze large sets of data without having to enter hundreds of values into calculators or computers. It also contains a lot of examples taken from actual data sets; this is the text that will deflect that ubiquitous "what's this useful for in real life" question from students. A few issues, though, dog the book. In order of importance:

1 - Chapter 3-6, on counting methods is either underdeveloped or overdeveloped, depending on perspective. The short section gives an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink survey of the topic - permutations and combinations and such are dealt with in one fell swoop and followed up with only a smattering of problems, giving students little oportunity to fully digest the most mathematically-intense part of the course. If you're teaching this course to math majors, you'll need additional time and material for this section (I recommend Sullivan and Mizrahi's _Finite Mathematics_); if you're teaching humanities/social science majors, who are more concerned with data collecting and analysis, I'd recommend skipping this chapter entirely.

2 - The book makes such frequent references to the TI-83+ calculator that one is inclined to wonder if Triola is receiving kickbacks from Texas Instruments. Contrary to what the book would have you believe, it's not necessary to invest in this beast (retail price: >$100) in order to compute standard deviations and correlation coefficients; my students are managing just fine with their $15 calculators with statistical functions.

3 - In Chapter 4, there's some mention of the principle that if, under certain assumptions, the probability of an *observed event* is very low, then the assumptions are probably incorrect. There's some merit to that, to be sure (if all 1000 of my coin flips came up heads, it's natural to question the original assumption that my coin was fair), but Triola would do well to apply the critical thinking procedures exalted in Chapter 1 to elaborate on this. For instance: it's highly unlikely that Betty Terwilliger would have won the jackpot in the Lotto 6-49 if the contest wasn't rigged (probability: 1/14000000 or thereabouts), and yet, she did. (Similar arguments can be - and have been - used to defend intelligent design and astrology.) It's a subtle concept, one that deserves more attention than the cursory "this is the law, and it's important" treatment that Triola gives it.

4 - Some of the later chapters (Chapter 7 in particular) complicate matters unnecessarily. Chapter 7 expands on ideas presented in Chapter 5 and developed in Chapter 6; these connections are not exploited as much as they could be.

These flaws aside, _Essentials_ is a sound survey of the subject, one that's very nicely designed with its audience of humanities and social science majors in mind. The examples are timely, and the anecdotes are interesting and relevant. The book justifies the subject matter without getting bogged down in formality, which is an ideal balance for its intended audience. In the hands of a knowledgeable and experienced instructor with sufficient prep time, it provides very good support to a statistics course for non-majors, but it's not self-contained.

Got here before any other books I had ordered.
The product description was spot on
Good Condition
Cheap
My teacher is kind of a prick though.

I had this book for my Statistics I class. I've read every bit of the instruction on the book (I read everything not just what's on homework). At the end I realised I learned nothing I was still confused. Unless you have a good instructor to follow you through every step, you should skip it. This is NOT something for at home students.

I don't know what the hell these people are talking about, but this text is garbage... and that is an overstatement. I absolutely LOATHE this textbook. The examples are fragmented to the point you can barely connect them to the problems at the end of the chapter.... it's just a worthless waste of perfectly good money and paper.

My other statistics book for psychological statistics puts this book to such shame, it's sad. So sad that I damn near cried. It's unfortunate that I couldn't use my psych stats book to go along with the current class I am taking which is utilizing this junk.

Perfect text... well organized... please.

F -

I teach statistics at 2 colleges. I use this book. It is outstanding in its clarity and mathematical depth. Students with strong math backgrounds will appreciate the fine logic developed by this book as it explains statistics. The word problems are outstanding and relevant to applications across broad fields of interests. The examples are explained thoroughly. This book is very well priced for the student who is struggling to pay tuition, fees, etc. Highly recommend this book to all serious students.

The examples are not clear and complete enough. Even my Stats professor said he didn't like the way the book was made. I know Stats involves a lot of word problems but the book is uncessarilly wordy.

Wow! Got the book in just 2 days! Very good condition.

I had to have this book for a college intro to statistics class. I'm not very math inclined, and this book was no help. The 'examples' are not clear and easy to follow.

One of the things that I did find helpful in this book is when they list the steps to use an equation in text, without the numbers. Fortunately, the professor was able explain the equations.

If you are trying to teach yourself statistics:
1.) get a life :c)
2.) don't get this book

If you are getting this as a textbook for school:
hope you have a good math prof.