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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well organized, but inconsistent level. Elementary?, February 24, 2007
I was assigned this book for teaching my 100-level college intro-stats course. It is much better organized than the previous book I used, but it isn't as thorough. Some topics, such as calculating a median and other percentiles using depth on an ordered list, are simply omitted in this book.
It seems that some topics are omitted or glossed over because they might be too complex for "Elementary" statistics. On the other hand, the more complex topics in the book, such as hypothesis testing -- a topic that students consistently have a hard time understanding -- are not covered in enough depth.
Our students are sold this book in a package with videos on CD, a study guide, and a couple other things. This package is, in my opinion, worthless to a student in a class. They may be valuable to someone teaching themselves, or to a student in an online class, but for a live class, I think they are a waste of money.
The CD videos show a teacher working through the topics and some of the problems in the book. However, the teacher seems to have, (hands flail) y'know, a highly repetitive, (hands flail) y'know, (hands flail) vocabulary (hands flail), and it's (hands flail) y'know (hands flail) really hard to (hands flail) y'know, watch him (hands flail) y'know, teach. Like his hands have a nervous tic or something. I'm sure I have my own quirks in class, but this guy... his hands are something else.
All in all, I think the book is pretty good, with solid examples, well-highlighted definitions and key points. The chapter exercises are good in that they start VERY easy and progress through up to reasonably difficult, while staying within the limits of the text.
I told my department head: I like the book, but I recommend it without the bonus materials (and associated costs!).
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by Ron Larson
by Kathleen McLaughlin
