29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Use The Previous Edition (if you want to use this textbook), September 8, 2008
This review is from: Introduction to the Practice of Statistics: w/Student CD (Hardcover)
I have used Moore & McCabe for years but am using this edition for the first time and have a number of complaints:
1) One fairly minor problem is that the new color scheme is downright painful. This is even worse on the slides (but at least they did away with the modern art at the beginning of each chapter).
2) Speaking of slides: the Power Point slides are completely overloaded; were they written by a statistician or by Tolstoy?
3) The problems are scattered throughout the chapters rather than collected at the end
4) The publisher has still not provided an electronic version of the solutions manual
5) A number of the online multiple choice questions in the compass system package are broken (missing plots, typographical errors, etc.)
6) The authors made some debateable decisions, such as introducing the concept of degrees of freedom in section 1.2. This will probably be the first day of class of what is the first statistics class most students ever take.
7) Most changes vis-a-vis the previous edition are superficial, e.g.: switching the order of two chapters (both on the CD, not the actual textbook)
7) All the flaws of the previous edition (see my review there) are still present.
8) New edition => no used books. This means more money for the authors, but a far greater financial burden for the students.
The previous edition of this textbook is not perfect (see my comments there) but superior to this edition.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Convoluted, October 14, 2008
This review is from: Introduction to the Practice of Statistics: w/Student CD (Hardcover)
This is probably the worst text book I have ever used. Like the previous reviewers mentioned, there are very few "worked-out" problems. They give plenty of examples, but few solutions.
Also, the example problems in this book are complicated and involve large data sets. The book fails to transition smoothly from the conceptual to the practical. It unexpectedly jumps from the equations to multi-stage problems, and expects the reader to have a broad understanding of mathematical concepts prior to reading this supposed "introduction".
The homework section is beyond frustrating. About half the questions force the reader to flip throughout the book to look at charts, or even homework questions from the previous chapter. The information is difficult to access, and it creates a barrier to learning.
I would opt not to purchase this book if possible. Wikipedia does a much better job at presenting examples and explaining concepts.
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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Worst stat book ever, August 27, 2008
This review is from: Introduction to the Practice of Statistics: w/Student CD (Hardcover)
My daughter's college stat class uses this book. Two weeks into the semester, I can say this is one of the worst math books I've ever seen. This has few worked examples. Homework problems make constant references to other areas of the book so there is a continuous back and forth. Questions are unclear. The authors assume a great deal of knowledge on the part of students - one has to wonder how many years (decades?) it's been since they were in an introductory classroom. Data sets are unnecessarily large - one problem has 76 data points to be manipulated without software. The same concepts could be taught with half as many. Even the layout is poor - small type face on homework problems which are crowded together.
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