The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics

by Fatma Abdel-Raouf and Robert A. Donnelly Jr.

Book Overview

Every year 472,000 college students enroll in a statistics course. The odds are good they'll need some help. Aimed at high school and college students who need to take statistics to fulfill a degree... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592576346
• ISBN13: 9781592576340
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Alpha Books
• Length: 395 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.4" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Don't attempt Statistics alone...

If you are taking an online course in statistics, you need this book. If you are taking a statistics class where the professor is speaking over your head, you need this book. Dr. Donnelly breaks it down in a way that is understandable to the most liberal arts minded student. He cuts away all the clutter that most books have that are unnecessary, cuts to the chase and makes you laugh while you learn. This book is the next best thing to a personal tutor. I understood all the topics he presented, and it was perfectly in line with my Introduction to Statistics class.

Most Helpful

This really helped me get up to speed on statistics quickly. The Excel formulas were most useful for real life application. Some books are worth several times there price for what you get out of them. For me, this is one such book. I found the examples easy to follow considering the complex subject matter. Five stars. Topics covered include: standard deviation, median, mode, proablity theory, Chebyshev's theorem, frequency distributions, Bayes theorem, binomial and Poisson probability distributions, inferential statistics, standard error of population, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, chi-square, and ANOVA.

A great reference book!

Having just started a PhD program after years in the "real world", my statistics skills were well beyond rusty... Fortunately, this book took me from "rusty" to passing my Advance Multivariate Statistics class with an A-! The practical and everyday illustrations of complex statistical concepts really help you understand the basics of statistics. And the author's humorous family examples even make the subject interesting... Normally, statistics and interesting aren't even found in the same sentence, but Dr. Donnelly manages and excels at it bringing everything together in an easy to follow guide. A great buy and definitely recommended...

Great balance of humor and education

I recently purchased "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics" as a refresher prior to my reentry into the labor force. I had tried to use two textbooks that I had kept from my and my wife's college days. (It had been over 35 years since I had taken a statistics course in college.) While extremely detailed and very thorough, these old textbooks were not written for the casual reader and/or one who just wanted a quick and easy refresher course on some of the basic concepts of statistics. I searched through several new statistics books at a book retailer to try to find one that offered the best combination of readability and `statistical enlightenment'. My search included several statistics exam reference books, "Statistics for Dummies ", and other similar reference books. After reviewing the treatment of the same topic in each text, I selected Professor Donnelly's book. "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics" provides both a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience and an easily understandable treatment of the subject matter. This book is one of the best combinations of education and entertainment that I have ever encountered. I can't imagine finding a better book if the objective is to help one quickly and easily obtain a better understanding of the basic concepts of statistics.

Statistics Idiot no more!!

You will not regret this purchase if you are a complete idiot to stat or absolutely terrified of stats. If you have money to buy one basic stat book Buy this one. I do not like the word basicbecause this book explains the major fundamental concepts. I HATE statistics. I dont understand it. Once I read the word CHANCE i just go blank not to mention the Standard deviation. I would sit and think: who would want to make a "Law of large numbers" . However I had to do statistics for my thesis, sure I can go on the computer and let SigmaStat do all the work , but I needed to understand what I was asking SigmaStat to do, plus I needed to know what to ask! Got the book Friday afternoon, I am writing this review Sunday am. I have finished reading the book. It was humourous( Lord knows we need humour to do Statistics),but it was informative all the way. THe book explained how to do the tests, why, which test is appropriate for which sample type and size. When you are finished with this book two three things will happen 1. You will be disappiointed because the fun has ended. 2. You will be elated that you have finally conquered the beast of chi-square and ANOVA, etc. 3. You will be left wondering why all stat books are not written in this way. If you are looking for advanced Stats eg. Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon's etc, this book does not go into that, but it is an EXCELLENT base to begin to understanding all the other fundamental tests before moving on to the advanced. He made the concept come to life with real life examples. I think the author should consider doing an advanced version dealing with these other tests.... I cant wait!!!!!!! NOW.... I HATED STATISTICS!!!