Customer Reviews

Probability and Random Processes

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I mostly agree with the positive reviews of the 3rd edition of Grimmett & Stirzaker's *Probability and Random Processes.* I wanted to address the criticism by the previous reviewer and add some detail regarding the 3rd edition (I suspect that the prior reviews might be based on the 1st 2 editions of the book).

(1) The prior reviewer might have a point in that this book may not have as many exercises and examples that are worked out to be helpful to the learner. However, this is because there is a companion book -- *One Thousand Exercises in Probability* (2nd ed.) -- that is designed to provide those examples and exercises. That book contains the answers/solutions to each and every exercise posed in that book. That book also closely follows the topics of this book. Together, those 2 books by Grimmett & Stirzaker should meet all of the requirements for self-studiers of probability theory. [Really, the 2 books should be seen as a set.]

(2) The 3rd edition of this book (along with exercises/answer book) cover a wide range of topics from probability starting from basics and going up to applications like queueing, Monte Carlo & Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Ito's Lemma & financial option valuation, etc. In short, this set of books should enable the sufficiently motivated to go from basic probability to a point where they can approach useful problems in applied probability (rather than toy problems offered by other books which, by the way, don't usually give the answers).

(3) Stirzaker (Oxford) has one of the best approaches to thinking about probability that I have ever come across. It is well worth it to expose oneself to his viewpoint.

I think this book is good but very difficult to read. If you are beginners of probability, I suggest read other books like Sheldon Ross's "First Course in Probability" or "Introduction to Probability Models".

I'm using the book as a fourth year economics student, so I already have some knowledge about probability (a very good introduction is by deGroot, probability and statistics). it is not appropriate to give the book a bad review just because it is too advanced for some reader.

so I'm writing this "review" to emphasise that the book is very good for self study even if you can't understand every single example. it may take some time (if not then you are studying stuff you already know which is not good) but it really teaches you about probability.

I am a first year graduate student majoring in applied math - Statistics. Although I majored in math in undergraduate and computer science, I have been away from academic for more than 25 years. Recently, I resumed my graduate study and taking a graduate level Probability Theory course. I found this book helpful in the way as a reference book, meaning a book that points you to the right areas, from which you may pursue more materials or books that will offer you more detailed explanation or suitable descriptions to your level and taste. I also purchased "One thousands excercises" from the same author. But I returned it because the solutions of the problems are too brief for me. However, I kept "Probability and Random Processes" because this book covers almost any topic you may encounter in probability discussion and serves me as an encyclopedia of Probability. If you need more examples or explanations, you will need a more descriptive or introduction book to help you out.

I was a bit surprised that this book was so terse, given the postive comments given by others. I would recommend having at least the Schaum's outline handy when reading this book, especially if you want to really understand the more basic concepts well. The authors don't make any effort to expand/expound upon the basic concepts of probability so that the student understands how to apply the ideas in the exercises. However, it would seem that the authors enjoy spending more time writing about the less mainstream ideas and topics encountered in this book.

And the exercises....well forget it. Those exercises will take up your entire weekend as you struggle through them, and the answers given by the authors in their companion answer guide are not much help in enabling understanding of the material.

Grimmett & Stirzaker develops probabilty theory rigorously and simultaneously develops a good understanding of how to use the theory in practice. Explains important theorems, uses good examples, etc. I was (inexplicably) assigned Casella & Berger to learn probability and, since that was completely useless, I used Grimmett & Stirzaker very effectively to learn it on my own.

As many reviewers have pointed out, this book may be too advanced for a beginner student, but it is truly the best for a graduate student or anyone else with solid background in Mathematics and some knowledge of Probability. When I took the course based on this book I already covered Advanced Calculus (Rudin) and college-level Probability and Statistics (DeGroot), and I just loved this book. Ten years later I still use it; just a few weeks ago I needed to familiarize myself with Brownian bridges and it took me only 10 minutes with the book to get all I need to know - the concepts, the formulas, the applications - to the extent I could explain it to my teammates.

I wouldn't recommend this book as the introduction to probability, but for a serious student of mathematics this is a great book to further the understanding of probability and prepare for advanced studies in Stochastic Calculus.

This may be a good reference book for probability but certainly IS NOT recommended for someone who is just starting out with the topic. There is not much explanation of theories or concepts, examples are few. The exercises appear useful but without a good chapter behind the exercises, the exercises by themselves are of no use. The accompanying 1000 exercises is also written in the same manner. There is very little attempt to go down to the level of a beginner student, the authors appear to be so deeply immersed in the subject that they have forgotten what it is like when you encounter it for the first time.

If you want to offer yourself a thorough grounding is mathematical statistics, this IS the text to have; starts humble, but then covers an enormity of topics (with humour even)-the chapter on ergodicity is splendid- with an understanding of how the mind of the reader actually does assimilate information (hardly anything is taken for granted)....a classic

I am using this book in a graduate level probability theory class and I cannot recommend it. It's text is often terse and examples are few. The solutions guide (One Thousand Exercises in Probability) is just as bad. Proofs are left to the reader or completed in one line without explanation, even in the solutions manual.