Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Probability

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

You won't believe what Ghahramani has accomplished until you BUY THIS BOOK (2nd Edition)!!

Instead of trying to intimidate the student with formulas from the abyss and his superior intellect, Ghahramani matter-of-factly shows you what needs to be seen, backs it up with *excellent* examples and side remarks, provides the opportunity to complete a problem set, and moves on quickly to the next section.

What we have here is the model of efficiency: Enough substance to retain clarity without being prolix.

The axiomatic presentation of probability allows the reader to develop the mental framework needed to have a *deep* and *comprehensive* grasp of probability that can truly be called understanding...

One of the reviewers here makes some pretty bizarre claims; So for the record: I am not a Graduate Student.. actually, I am an undergraduate Aerospace Engineering Major.

Ghahramani's English is Superior -- His sentences flow easily and makes for a quick read. If you cannot learn from this book, it is because you are either Illiterate, Lazy, or Inept at BASIC math.

There is *NO* Calculus until Chapter 6! Furthermore, nearly all the symbols used in the book are actually defined and illustrated in the beginning sections of the book.

This Book is Clear, Concise, and Well-Balanced. It is not filled to the brim with overly descriptive paragraphs that emphasize all the wrong things. Gharamani knows exactly where to place the emphasis so that you dont have to spend hours trying to figure out what is important and what is not. This is THE book to have for "Mathematical Statistics 1" or "Intro to Probability".

Very well-written guide to the world of probability - by far the best I have read. Could be deemed "too hard" by those with poor mathematics skills though (as is evident with some of the other reviews given...)

Saeed Ghahramani does a fine job with this text. This is a great text for those seeking a guided introduction to the fundamental elements of probability. I am a undergraduate mathematics major & find the material in this text pleasing to read and full of examples that aide in the learning process. This text reminds me of the Springer series of mathematics texts (with it's page style, fonts, & chapters). But one peace of advice, do not read through this book quickly. Take your time and do as many examples as possible (the odd numbered review questions are answered in the back so you may check your work).

This is an excellent reference book for anyone taking a graduate level Math Stat class. I have read Hoag & Craig, Cassella, Mood Graybill & Boes, and Mukhopadhyay, and this book is clearly the easiest to read from simple distributions to moment generating functions, to transformations, etc.

After you read this, you are going to wish the author had part II covering inferential methods.

This text starts from the axioms of probability and builds up. Beautifully done, the problems are interesting, and the approach is exciting.

This book is all right for a math book. Every time I forget something in probability, I can go back to this thing and find exactly what I'm looking for. I guess it could be more rigorous, but I think that would ruin it's understandability. It could definitely use more examples, but I say that about every book. I'm sure it contains its share of typos, but I'm so used to seeing typos in math texts I don't give them a second thought.

This book can sure help you with figuring out how to compute odds in poker, so check it out.

This book is probably not rigorous enough for a serious mathematics student in probability/statistics, although I am basing this partly on the fact that I (EE Ph.D.) can read and understand this book whereas I can hardly get through a page in a book like Mathematical Statistics by Wilks without extensive background reading. Ghahramani's book has many interesting examples, such as Polya's problems on estimating the number of misprints in a book when two proofreaders each catch a certain (differing) number of mistakes (estimating an unknown frequency). It is quite readable. My only real criticism, and this is not unique to Ghahramani's book, is that "a picture is worth a thousand words" i.e. it is lacking in figures - e.g. if you are going to talk about the central limit theorem, it would be more easily grasped to students to show how the sums of some non-normal distributions quickly approach a normal through a figure or two. [...]

So, in my grad school studies, I've learned the hard way to place more emphasis on picking classes based on how well the assigned textbook is written rather than other criteria. I don't have much time to figure out particular notation or do serious research on supplemental problems to complete chapter concepts.

This book turned out to be so well written, class was a confirmation of what was written instead of being the missing link between the book and me. It's visually pleasing, and it flows. Great examples and many problems at the end of the chapter to choose from. Without going into much detail (I don't have my book handy to review it thoroughly), I feel it's an excellent book. I am glad I have it for reference in my next semester Stochastic Processes class, and future Queueing Theory course.

I am a graduate in statistics. The textbook I used is the Introduction to probability by bertsekas and Tsitsiklis while I used this book for supplementary and I found it excellent! It provides some brief history about probability and most improtant, concrete process of the proof of theorms, many of which are very attractive to me!

The copy I received was missing pages 319-366. I figure this out now that I'm halfway through my semester and need it for finals. CHECK YOUR BOOK FOR COMPLETION