|  | Authors: David Freedman, Robert Pisani, Roger Purves
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Buy Used: $79.94
as of 11/22/2009 06:59 CST details
New (32) Used (46) from $79.94
Seller: piedmont_books
Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 84748
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 4th
Pages: 720
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 10.4 x 7.4 x 1.6
ISBN: 0393929728
Dewey Decimal Number: 519.5
EAN: 9780393929720
ASIN: 0393929728
Publication Date: February 13, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Hardcover. Approx. 3% or less with some writing/notations. Moderate cover wear. All orders are carefully packaged and shipped within 24 hours with delivery confirmation and email notification of shipment. Thank you
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 29
 Math can be fun! :-) July 15, 2007
E. Kontsevoy
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I generally agree with what others are saying. What's so unique about this book is that... get this: you'll get one of those rare math textbooks that are *fun* to read. Well... in a nerdy sense. I wish it was updated more recently though, because most of the samples use data back from 70s or early 90s at best, which, of course, does not make the book less correct or helpful.
I am re-learning some of my school classes (graduated with BS in Applied Math in 98) and I wish I saw this book when I took statistics back in college.
The perfect tool...for some jobs November 6, 2006
d-18v (USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
D. Messer asks how his/her review can be so different from Alice's. That's easy. They're both right. They are looking at the same book through different lenses.
If the goal is to explain what's really going on "under the hood" in an introductory class, there's no better book than FPP. However, it works its magic by discarding things that don't matter--like mathematical notation. I would argue that students who take a course using FPP would be able to successfully tackle problems that would cause others to shrug their shoulders from lack of comprehension.
However, it comes at a price. Students do not see the mathematical notation that is necessary to pursue the subject at advanced levels. Imagine, if you will, being an instructor with a class of students who had completed an introductory course with excellent grades and wouldn't recognize the formula for Student's t statistic in standard notation.
I've used FPP in a university setting. It works fine, BUT there has to be careful coordination with teachers of follow-up classes so that they can adapt their methods accordingly, that is, for a class who has a deeper understanding of the principles of statistics without having been exposed to the usual formulas in the traditional way.
Don't Ask Alice June 24, 2006
D. Messer (MN USA)
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
I'm not sure what book Alice read, but I find it hard to believe it was this one.
I won't bother repeating what so many others have said in other reviews, as I find them to be in alignment with my own opinion. However, I find Alice's review puzzling. How can so many other reviewers find this book to be so helpful, yet an instructor of the topic found it difficult to use as a course text? I actually feel like we read different books, as her description doesn't agree with my experience.
 not the best preparation for my students to move up April 28, 2006
Alice Fusco
25 out of 38 found this review helpful
I'm fascinated by the rave reviews for this text. I used it for a community college stats course and once I was in the classroom with it, I became aware that I had some problems. It is true that it's written in a friendly style and has plenty of exercises, but I found it to be poor preparation for my students who will be going on to higher levels of statistics in behavioral science courses.
I found myself explaining, more times than I wish to recall, how formulas look different in other statistics books, and I was disconcerted at the lack of use of symbols that one usually sees in beginning statistics courses. Simple terms most commonly used in statistics were not introduced at all, and most statistical tests were not mentioned. Many students found it to be cumbersome and a bit overwhelming.
It's my own fault, really. I did not spend enough time perusing texts. And my familiarity with statistics prevented me, when looking it over, from realizing how much was really missing. I realized that my students would enter bachelor's programs lacking some very basic information that is always used in statistics for the behavioral sciences. Most of my students plan to earn graduate degrees; I had to spend quite a bit of time preparing notes for them as well as lectures explaining formulas, symbols, and terminology that "some of" their higher courses might use. And with nary a mention of ANOVA or any other higher level tests, I felt I really had done my students a disservice.
I began to wonder - have I been out of school so long that things have changed this much and I'm not aware of it? But - as I am teaching at a state college, stats texts started trickling in from other publishers. I saw that it was not me. This massive text, costing my students $120, is lacking quite a bit that they should be exposed to - to better prepare them for future statistics studies in the behavioral sciences. This was certainly a bitter lesson for me! I had to waste far too much time putting together information that was missing just so my students would have the course they should have.
I recommend Sally Caldwell's text, "Statistics Unplugged" for beginning students - at least in behavioral sciences programs. It's a third the cost, a third the SIZE, and much more reader-friendly. And it contains the information that I had to supply to my students just so they would get what they paid for.
I do not recommend this book. I'll certainly be much more careful in future when choosing textbooks.
A must!!! February 17, 2006
G. DROSSINOS (Philadelphia)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is perhaps one of the most enjoyable textbooks I have ever laid my hands and eyes upon. And to think that it is meant to teach you statistics. The authors use an unconvential approach to the subject, but manage very successfully to hit the heart of the matter. In other words, they go beyond formulas and mathematical conceptions and push you to understand the logic behind statistics. What does represent? How should we interpret? What are the possible fallacies? All of this while guided by the simple, entertaining yet thorough language employed. A must have for all that want to be introduced to the strangely wonderful world of statisitcs. Simply read the praises on the back cover to get a sense of the book's power.
Showing reviews 11-15 of 29
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