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Head First Statistics

By Dawn Griffiths
August 2008
Pages: 716
Series: Head First
ISBN 10: 0-596-52758-6 | ISBN 13: 9780596527587
Press Release (Average of 1 Customer Reviews)

Description

Wouldn't it be great if there were a statistics book that made histograms, probability distributions, and chi square analysis more enjoyable than going to the dentist? Head First Statistics brings this typically dry subject to life, teaching statistics through engaging, interactive, and thought-provoking material, full of puzzles, stories, quizzes, visual aids, and real-world examples. This book satisfies the requirements for passing the College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) Statistics Exam.
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Featured customer reviews

A very easy-to-follow textbook,  October 08 2008
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

This is a very readable study book for new university students (or people around that stage) learning statistics and probability for an academic course. It goes to great lengths to be fun and memorable to read for people who probably have a lot of books to get through, and who may find the topic difficult. It uses clip art and photography extensively, as well as breaking up the routine of the text with different styles of content, and lots of exercises. A typical page has a simple graph or algebraic equation with "hand written" annotations emphasising key characteristics, then a photograph of a student (to whom the reader can relate) making some comment, and a few paragraphs of text. It adds up to something covering many pages, but which is easier to digest.

The publishers make a big deal of the "Head First" style, beginning with a whole chapter about it. The repetition works quite well although I sometimes think that I'd rather cram something new in to my fading grey-cells than hear the same story again. My favourite part of the technique was the brief annotations on pictures and in the observations by the photographed people. They often summarised a tricky point very clearly and concisely. Making a formula talk about itself and who it is similar to, is surprisingly good. Sometimes the repetition got the better of me, for example on pages 416, 417 and 418 where a point that was merely about an example was made 4 times.

There are lots of really well designed examples. They are based on plausible scenarios such as a gym that wants to allocate new members to the class with the closest average age, but keeps getting into a muddle because they do their statistics wrongly. In one, a 17 year old man joined a class where the median age was exactly 17, only to find out that it was a mother-and-toddler swimming class and he was not welcome! The exercises build on these examples. Although I found them generally easy, I think that they would be well balanced for a person meeting these topics for the first time.

For myself, I was looking for a reminder about which statistical techniques can be applied to different types of experimental data, but I did not find that; the pinnacle of the book's coverage seemed to be the normal distribution. I was nevertheless pleased to find a page about sources of bias in badly chosen sample sets. Its main topics go from plotting simple data to averages and variance, an introduction to probabilities, the binomial, geometric and poisson distributions, the normal distribution, sampling and making predictions about the larger population, hypothesis tests, then finally the chi-squared test and correlation lines.

There were some over-simplifications, such as that time should always go on the X axis of a line chart, whereas I'd expect to see the controlled variable which isn't necessarily time. Some charts had compressed areas representing large gaps in the data set which is a trick to be used sparingly, and actually worked against the topic at hand. I found a few mistakes, such as a graph axis on p38 labelled "Hours" which should be "Age", and a data set on p61 miscopied from p55. The print quality is not as good as books on artistic topics; most of the photographs are too dark.

In summary, Head First Statistics covers its topic very clearly, and is an excellent study aid for basic probability and statistics. It looks very different from the average book, and almost all of those innovations work really well, especially the one-sentence annotations. The examples and exercises are strong, and the book progresses well through advancing topics.

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Media reviews
"Unlike other easy to learn statistics primers, it provides a real introduction to experimental design, as well as being a drill and practice cookbook for test preparation. This book will be an important tool for all students of the experimental sciences."
-- Ira Laefsky, Amazon.com


"As with any good teacher, this O’Reilly series attacks the material from a variety of angles. If you know it, or you’re a quick learner, you can breeze right through. If you’re like me, they try everything possible to make things comprehensible."
-- Dana Blankenhorn, Dana Blankenhorn & Paula Rooney, ZDNet.com


"This is an educational and entertaining guide, which present the material in an engaging manner. "
-- Nadia Russ, Wonderpedia



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"This book will be an important tool for all students of the experimental sciences."
--Ira Laefsky, Amazon.com