Product Description

The importance of statistics stems from its usefulness. Statistics is concerned with the collection and analysis of data in order to obtain a better understanding of phenomena, and its methods have proved relevant to a wide range of subjects.

The strength of this text, now in its fifth edition, is its applicability across a range of disciplines, making it the perfect choice as an introductory textbook for first year students. Although an elementary knowledge of calculus is assumed, the main focus is on the development and application of statistical ideas. Each topic is explained with the help of numerous realistic practical examples, and reinforced by simple exercises and small projects. In this new edition, the computing content is based on Minitab, Release 14, with its extensive facilities in graphical and descriptive statistics. Additional material, including multiple-choice questions and datasets, is provided on a companion website.
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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #317256 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

The Statistician (of previous editions)
'...the answer to many a student's prayer (and their teacher's) and I would heartily recommend it.'

Statistics in Medicine (of previous editions)
'The many examples, exercises, computing exercises and projects make it a good sourcebook for teachers.'

From the Back Cover
The importance of statistics stems from its usefulness. Statistics is concerned with the collection and analysis of data in order to obtain a better understanding of phenomena, and its methods have proved relevant to a wide range of subjects. The strength of this text, now in its fifth edition, is its applicability across a range of disciplines, making it the perfect choice as an introductory textbook for first year students. Although an elementary knowledge of calculus is assumed, the main focus is on the development and application of statistical ideas. Each topic is explained with the help of numerous realistic practical examples, and reinforced by simple exercises and small projects. In this new edition, the computing content is based on Minitab, Release 14, with its extensive facilities in graphical and descriptive statistics. Additional material, including multiple–choice questions and datasets, is provided on a companion website.

Customer Reviews

Title is misleading
This text book use to be a popular choice for those studying mathematics A-level over 25 years ago. The book is not as simple as the title suggests and is in fact much more difficult than the much simpler text books used to teach statistics on an A-level course currently.

The book covers much more ground than that commonly studied at A-level and for many students would seem to be far too wordy. It does not break up the book into nice bite-size topics, nor does it have pathetically easy exercises to lead the beginning student in gently. The book deals with statistics in a much more in-depth manner and includes proofs of commonly used formulae that you will only find elsewhere in books used at university. It would not surprise me if this book was not used for a first course in Statistics at University on a Mathematics degree.

The examples used are more real-world and there are suggested projects to improve ones practical understanding of the material. Overall this is an excellent book to improve ones understanding of statistics, but not the easiest to work through.

I would not purchase this book
This book is probably the most difficult and most useless book that I have used. The exercises are not very good and if you have not done statistics before I recommend that you do not buy this book since it makes simple ideas more complicated than they need to be. Instead I personally think that 'A CONCISE COURSE IN STATISTICS'is a better book for those of us who are studying statistics for the first time.

A perfectly good textbooks - does what it says on the tin
Another reviewer of another stats textbook wrote "I'm guessing that when many people review a seemingly well written statistics book negatively, it's because they hate statistics and are blaming it on the book." There are some fiddly concepts in statistics, for example is the middle number up to ten: 5, 5.5, or something else? This book does a good job especially through its examples of helping the student to become competent in all the basic statistical techniques, and some of the more advanced ones too. It is probably not the best book for the most capable mathematical minds, but for the average good, committed student it seems to work. It is wordy, but not in a way that can't be read fast.