Customer Reviews

Schaum's Outline of Probability and Statistics, 3rd Ed. (Schaum's Outline Series)

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

 

 

I thought the material covered in this book was excellent and the examples are very good as well, but there was just one problem....riddled with typos. I noticed the first one on a Supplementary Problem in the the first chapter: the given answer was way off. Then in the 2nd chapter I noticed on another practice problem that there was an addition sign instead of an equal sign. Issues like this popped up for me through the FIRST 5 CHAPTERS!!!! If you are just learning some of this material it can be extremely frustrating because one symbol or number that is off may cause you to rack your brain for hours trying to figure out if it's the book or you that is wrong. Because most students blindly trust books this can cause a real hiccup in your studies. When I finally got fed up with the book I had to call McGraw Hill to see if they could exchange it for one without all the errors. Because I didn't purchase it directly from them (as most individual students purchase books from a store) they said there is nothing they could do for me except inform the editors. When I asked them if they accept any product liability on their part their response was: "If you buy food from one grocery store you can't return it at another". I urge you that if you are learning this material for the first time STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK. I gave this book 2 Stars because the content and explanations were pretty good, but the typos eventually became too much to overlook.

If you are studying advanced statistics, you might want to add this as an essential item to your reading list. It's a perfect balance between the mathematical and descriptive approach, but you need to be familiar with a bit of 'A' level maths though. But the book gives good value for money and knowledge.

This book and the way it's advertised make it seem like an idiot's guide to Stats. However, it's not. It's actually pretty dense for that. It is a great supplement to a Stats class. It cuts through a lot of the nonsense and verbiage of many stats texts. I'd suggest using this to supplement the class (after lectures etc). It's also great to refresh yourself on basic stats and probability concepts once you've taken a course. I just wish it had more diagrams and pictures of the various distributions.

This book like most of the Schaum's Outline Series on Mathematics has good explanations , instructive solved problems and great supplementary problems for the student to do on his/her own. It contains more than 2 semesters of material. The only problem I see with book is that in certain parts of the text formulas seem to be coming out of nowhere .For example Chapter 4 talks about Probability Distributions which is an important topic in Calculus based probability.We see formulas given for Gamma and Beta Distribution , the Cauchy Distribution and the Student's t Distribution .However there is no discussion of why these formulas are defined the way they are .The thought process of how mathematicians arrived at these distributions is not discussed at all .Questions unanswered are for example :Why is a certain distribution called "Student's t??" What is the significance of the Gamma and Beta Distributions and why are they defined the way they are?? These questions are important for anybody who wants to know more than just the mechanics of Probability and Statistics .To understand any branch of mathematics ,one must know the thought patterns involved.So I had to knock off 1 star.Otherwise the book is good.

I bought this book to review the basics of probability and statistics and it meets the purpose. I refer the book to review the concepts now and then.

I really love this book. The packaging is super nice.. There was no single damage to my book.. I just LOVE it

I'm reviewing Schaum's Outline of Probability and Statistics 3/e from the Amazon sample for potential use as the probability component of my Intro to Logic course. The sample contains most of the book's first chapter, with which I am very impressed. The explanations are thorough, and written in very clear and concise language. Examples are interesting and the "Solved Problems" section in the latter part of the chapter is very good. I have looked at probability chapters in the most popular Intro to Logic course books and the Schaum's is the best I've read so far.
Although this Kindle version is advertised for Kindle DX use, it worked fine on my Kindle2. About half of the formulae were clear and large enough for my eyes. Using the K2 picture-zoom feature worked OK, not great, but well enough.
I could not tell from the sample with its Table of Contents whether or not the book includes problems, without the answers, to assign to students, but then from what I can tell the Schaum's Outlines are for students's review, not for course books, and teachers can easily enough make up probability problems.
Being a new Kindle user, I do need to know what this Amazon note means before purchasing the book: "Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 4 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits." Coursebook publishers typically give a free book copy to professors who require the book in their courses. I need to know how this will this work for eBooks. If publishers don't offer eBook exam or desk copies, few professors will use the eBook versions
I definitely recommend this book--Chapter 1 anyway--for anyone who wants to review or learn anew how to calculate probabilities.

Probability and Statistics is my life. I needed this book to just refresh my basic stats and this is it.

awesome price, came within a reasonable amount of time, came in good condition, no complaints whatsoever