Statistics Workbook for Dummies

by Deborah J. Rumsey

Book Overview

A friendly, hands-on guide to the dreaded field of statistics Competence in and understanding statistics is important to success in such fields as business and science, and is often a requirement for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764584669
• ISBN13: 9780764584664
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: For Dummies
• Length: 286 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.0" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

Statistic Workbook for Dummies

I am currently using both Statistics for Dummies and Statistics Workbook for Dummies. The books are step-by-step books for people who have no knowledge of statistics and learning the concepts of statistics. I am currently in a statistics online college class at the age of 45+, and I am finally comfortable learning statistics on my own. I am also using Algebra for Dummies; this book is also very good. I would recommend these books to any college student.

Everyday Examples

I like the fact that the Statistics Workbook for Dummies uses real life examples for their exercises and they explain statistics in simple terms.

Highly Practical

As someone who teaches Statistics to Information Technology professionals I am always looking for new ways of explaining basic Statistical ideas to "newcomers". This book is excellent for those learners who find it easier to learn through examples and practice than just by reading theory. It is true that one would need another book for comprehensive explanations, however this book is one of the best resources available for "hands-on" practice. Although other reviewers have covered the book's contents I would like to focus on Chapter 19, Ten Ways to Spot Common Statistical Mistakes, that covers the following topics: - Scrutinizing Graphs - Searching for and Specifying Bias - Marking the Margin of Error - Scanning for Sample Size - Studying Sample Selection (Gotta Be Random) - Checking for Confounding Variables - Considering Correlation - Doing the Math - Detecting Selective Reporting - Avoiding the Anecdote I believe every introductory Statistics book should contain a similar section. This book is also a great help for those who already know basic Statistics and need a quick, practical review.

Excellent as a supplement or review, not suited for stand-alone learning

Basic statistics is a course that I have taught at Mount Mercy College over thirty times. Since it is required for several majors, including business, nursing and psychology, the student population is a varied one. Therefore, I get everyone from seasoned math majors to people who have held off taking a math course until the last possible session. Some of these students really need their hands held in several ways, from extra human interactive help to additional reading material with practice problems. While this book cannot help with the former, it is an excellent solution for the latter. As the name implies, this is a workbook containing problems in basic statistics. There is very little explanatory text, the bulk of the explanations are in the form of solved problems. The topics covered are: *) Organizing data into graphs, charts and histograms *) Measures of the center and the spread of the data *) The fundamentals of probability *) The distributions used in statistical analysis *) Confidence intervals of means, proportions and the differences between two of them *) Hypothesis testing of means, proportions and the differences between two of them *) Correlation and regression *) Summaries containing a review of the mathematics, the top ten statistical formulas and ten ways to spot statistical mistakes As is always the case with survey books, it is possible to criticize the exclusion of a topic or two. Furthermore, this is not a book that the general beginner population could use to learn statistics. However, if you are searching for something to give you supplemental work in statistics or are looking for something that will give you a quick and effective review, then this book is what you are looking for.

Lots of helpful information for exams

This book helped me get ready for my exams. There were tons of problems, with answers all worked out and explained clearly. Plus it gives you a lot of ideas about what your teacher might ask you on an exam. I found this to be very helpful in my stats class.