Customer Reviews

Intro Stats

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a well-organized, nicely put-together textbook, with lots of step-by-step examples to give you a good base of understanding and lots of problems and section reviews to allow you to apply and extend that understanding. If you're intimidated by math, this textbook will go a long way toward easing your fears, and if you're a lover of math, you'll learn a lot about Statistics and be highly entertained along the way.
Although an introductory calculus class was a prerequisite for the course I took using this text, the only time integrals and complicated formulas showed up was in footnotes or the occasional homework problem. In general, the book aims to teach through real world examples and applications, not through pages of potentially intimidating to-be-memorized equations and formulas. As a result, the "math" parts of the book (you can't really do Statistics without math) are hidden, so that you are often using "math" without realizing it.
I especially liked the book's listing of instructions, for a variety of Statistics software packages, about how to do on the computer whatever you'd just learnt in a chapter. There are some "do by hand" problems, but just as many "use the computer" problems--helpful, given that any time most of us will be using Statistics again will be for a job or for research and will involve computer software.
There are all sorts of random facts that break up the practically inevitable "ugh" feeling of reading a textbook. In addition, the writing is very clear and informal, without lots of technical jargon (what little there is is clearly explained first--no wondering in Chapter 15 what that darned "r," which you've been seeing since Chapter 6, means). When reading, I always felt the authors were talking to me through the page, which made reading go faster and more pleasantly. (The short chapters help, too.)
I also found the "What can go wrong?" sections at the end of each chapter useful, especially when we got to interpreting data: several times, I would try to do a homework problem, then go back to the chapter and realize I'd made a beginner's mistake and done exactly what I wasn't supposed to do. The authors know what first-time Statistics students are thinking, and they do a good job of steering you along the right course.

This actually is a fantastic textbook.

De Veaux and Velleman are realists; they know that you don't want to read everything. They have taken the liberty of highlighting important parts of their explanations. (They also highlighted a bit of advice recommending that students read more than just the highlighted text-they have a good sense of humor that shows up throughout the book.) The authors also provide a fantastic summary of "Key Concepts" at the end of each chapter.

Also, they have clearly gone to great lengths to find interesting topics to use in their exercises. There are very few mind numbing homework problems. You know the type: "In the following data about the most frequently purchased brand of toenail clippers..."
How about a question like this: What is the likelihood that reading a randomly selected example question will be more painful that attempting to swallow the textbook it came from? If you're selecting from <u>Intro Stats</u>, put down your fork and knife, because De Veaux and Velleman have gathered some topics that I think most people will genuinely find interesting. Such topics include: drug use among teenagers, stance on the death penalty, changes in average marriage age, and many others.

I've never felt compelled to review a textbook before, but this one is worth it. It's good stuff, my friends. Good stuff!

As a long-time professor of statistics with experience teaching introductory statistics to hundreds of students over many years, using many textbooks, I want to go on record that this is a wonderful book. The authors are hugely prepared, both as far as the statistical concepts and methods are concerned, but also with respect to instruction. They have learned what to do, and what not to do; they have made difficult concepts as simple as is they can (remembering Einstein's great principle: every explanation should be as simple as possible, but not simpler). All the key concepts and methods that really need to be covered are here, and the book is tied to the real world by repeated references to meaningful applied problems. For years I despaired that I would never find a book that had the great qualities I wanted to see in a book that introduces statistics, but this book comes as close as any I have seen. You won't go wrong using this book to learn statistics, nor to teach it!

For a statistics text book, much less any text book, this one is an easy read. The CD-ROM that allows you to have interaction with the information is also helpful; however, it is difficult to always get help from the chapter info to answer the practice problems.

This book is required for a statistics class. It is very comprehensive and methodically steps through the various types of information needed for a full understanding of statistical calculations and understanding. The quality of the book and the purchasing/shipping experience also were excellent.

This book arrived in great condition and quickly! I learned a lot from this book, even though I had to have it for a college course.

First.. when I thought of taking stats.. I thought of boredom, bunch of boring data to process

but this book is not at all that. It s approach and explanation is pretty understandable & user friendly to use. After reading I began to know how to understand and process data/statistic.

The problems for each chapter is not a lot! which I like. But there are reasonable amount of practice problems at least 30# per chapter, which I think is sensible and realistic for college students.

The book itself is a wonderful learning tool and I have found nothing wrong with it or the CD. However, when purchasing the "new" book from Amazon.com I assumed that it also came with the online access codes for other material that the publishers have made available. However, I was sadly mistaken and after waiting for my book to arrive and then calling the publisher to get an access code I still had to go and buy the access online, costing me an additional $57 on top of what I had already spent on the book. Amazon should be more clear about what information will be accompanying the book for future perchasers, because instead of saving money for my college textbook I spent about $30 more than I should of had to.

I took an entry level statistics course last semester. We ended up reading the entire book during the 16 week -online- course. Seeing as online courses tend to be more reading than actual teacher/student interaction, I heavily relied on this books content. I was very impressed with the outline and learn-ability this book gave. Although my humor is slightly drier than most, I found this book entertaining while "having to do work", but this book was to the point. I did not feel as though they over expressed any points nor under expressed. There are multiple examples to real life problems in each chapter that switch back and forth so there is not one exact way of seeing the content. It was those inter mingling examples that truly ingrained new material in every section of every chapter. AWESOME AWESOME! Intro Stats book.

I bought this book for my son ,he is first year college student.It helps him to prepare for tests.
The book is very detailed and easy to understand .