Customer Reviews

Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Probability and Statistics

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a completely outstanding work by an outstanding author. I have used this book for years, and again and again find myself turning to it for essential summaries and derivations of key results. Evidently some reviewers have not even caught on to the fact that the proofs of all the theorems are in the solved problems! (This is my first Amazon review, but I cannot allow the injustice perpetrated by some other reviewers to stand.)

All of the (few) typos of concern to some reviewers are in the "supplementary problems", and by the time you've got there you'll have no little confidence in your own answers and in your own ability. This is *the* probability and statistics book for me because the proofs are presented with minimum formality in order to maximize understanding of the main ideas. Want to know how to *derive* the chi-square distribution or how to add or multiply random variables? You'll find no clearer or more succinct presentation anywhere.

The first two chapters are also suitable for beginners. Copious examples (as thoughout) attend the presentations of (elementary) set theory, probability axioms, and combinatorics. The supplementary problems, always optional, however, do contain intermediate level challenges.

The book is entirely self-contained, and though it is of course true that extra books always help, it's the best single-source. It's ideal for self-study, as are all of Murray Spiegel's Schaum Outlines.

Most books have errors and typos. This book is no exception but I am curious as to why some reviewers think that nothing is proven. Of course some theorems are not proven rigorously which they can't be at this level but most proofs exist. If you are confused about Jacobians, then maybe you should also reference a calculus book because Spiegel expects that you know what that is.

This is an excellent book to refresh your knowledge of intro probability and statistics but assumes you are proficient in calculus.

I have used this book to teach myself statistics and probability theory in a relatively short period of time. The essentials are well laid out and reinforced with plenty of examples and exercises. I would recommend using a Schaum outline authored by Murray Spiegel for becoming proficient in problem solving in that particular area. I got started this way after reading the book, Indiscrete Thoughts by Gian Carlo Rota.

This is one of the few Statistics texts to turn to, if you indulge in any sort of independent study. Its contents are broad, and ramified virtually every aspect of core statistics and probability. I particularly valued the way it handled data analyses and result interpretations.
Whether you are interested in Numerical Descriptive Measures, Discrete Probability, Interval Estimation, or Hypothesis Testing, this book has something to make you happy. And, although its Analysis of Varience fell below my expectation, I was compensated by its handling of both Linear Regression and Non-parametric Tests. The outlook of this book is fine, and its topics are straightforward. It makes learning seem effortless!
However, the main downside I noticed is that this book did not explain theorems (and advanced formulae) in details. As a result of this, science and mathematics students may need to acquire additional book for that purpose. But overall, it remains a valuable text: especially for self-teaching students.

Although this is not a textbook, its probably just as good if not better than any textbook I've encountered in statistics. Each chapter usually starts off with a few proofs, then come the examples. You won't just get one or two examples, but many, & if they aren't enough, there are plenty of problems at the end of the chapter to work, all of which have the answers included. This book is geared towards someone that has already taken calculus III, & it is not a basic beginners statistics text. But overall, for the upper level statistics classes, this is one of the best books on the market & is surely a great companion to any regular statistics textbook.

I have been using this book to review for the Actuarial exam, and though it has been a few years since I learned a lot of this, even I can see the blatant typos and errors. Basic editing is part of a decent book, and someone did a terrible job on this one. Aside from the typos in the text itself, far too many of the Solved Problems give a wrong answer! It has been maddening to sit and do and re-do these problems to check my work, and I feel that if the easier/beginning sections have this many problems, I will be screwed when I get to the more advanced sections and can't so easily spot the mistakes. I think it is ridiculous that someone put this book out there, trying to help people learn, and couldn't even double check that it provides correct information.

Probability and statistics can be difficult subjects for students, and this Schaum's outline is very helpful both for explaining the theory and showing lots of numerical examples and practice problems in these very much related disciplines. Since a knowledge of probability is necessary to thoroughly understand statistics, that subject is tackled first, in the first four chapters. Statistics is addressed in the last six chapters of the book. The narrative of this book is very thorough, and intersperses explanations with worked out examples throughout. The book starts with basic probability, moves on through random variables, expectation, and special probability functions such as the binomial and Poisson distributions. In the statistics half of the book, there are chapters on sampling and estimation theory, hypotheses testing, curve fitting, regression, correlation, variance analysis, and finally the more advanced topic of nonparametric testing. Appendices offer some valuable distributions and tables. Of course, if you need to study these subjects more in depth such as expectation and detection or random processes, you are going to need other books for further study. However, at just over 400 pages in length, this book provides a good introduction to the topics of probability and statistics for a fraction of what many less enlightening textbooks cost and it is ideal for self-study. I highly recommend it.

The most difficult class I had in my math major was probability and statistics. It was the last class I had to take and because of low enrollment, I was forced to take it at a neighboring college. Therefore, not only was I in an unfamiliar building, I also had a teacher that I had never had before. To that point, I had been either blessed or cursed, depending on your point of view, by having had only two different math teachers. The teacher for the probability and statistics class also had a style completely different from what I was accustomed too. Finally, since it was also the very last class I had to take as an undergraduate, it was difficult to overcome the disease of "senioritis", where one just wants to get it over with.
In an attempt to get overcome of these problems, I purchased a copy of this book at the local bookstore and worked through the problems. I set certain times in the week where I was to work only on these problems and when I was done I rewarded myself with small treats. I found the problems in this book to be reasonable reflections of what we were covering and the solutions made it much easier to understand what the instructor was saying.
In the end, I pulled a B in the class and was happy to get it. Much of that was due to the work I did with this book, it was at times a struggle and if the problems would not have been as easy to follow as they are, it is quite possible that I would have quit working them and suffered for it.

As with all Schaum Outlines series, this is an excellent book for every college/univserity degree level student facing the statistics finals. Over 800 pages long, hundreds of examples, covering descriptive and inductive methods at length , together with the vital mathematical theory give the reader the background needed to pass any statistics finals. I used this when learning for mine, and it worked out great.

This book is great for those who have taken statistics already and just need a refresher and for those you learn quickly. Great explaination of content and great examples and excercises.