Product Description
Getting started with SAS is easy with The Little SAS Book. This friendly, easy-to-read guide gently introduces you to the most commonly used features of SAS software plus a whole lot more! The book has been revised to include concepts of the Output Delivery System; the STYLE= option in the PRINT, REPORT, and TABULATE procedures; ODS HTML, RTF, PRINTER, and OUTPUT destinations; PROC REPORT; more on PROC TABULATE; exporting data; and the colon modifier for informats. You'll find clear and concise explanations of basic SAS concepts (such as DATA and PROC steps), inputting data, modifying and combining data sets, summarizing and presenting data, basic statistical procedures, and debugging SAS programs. Each topic is presented in a self-contained, two-page layout complete with examples and graphics. This format enables new users to get up and running quickly, while the examples allow you to type in the program and see it work!
Customer Reviews:
Good quick reference.......2007-10-18
This book is very useful for quick reference. Good for beginners or for experienced sas user who want a quick reference guide.
Great book for beginners!!!.......2007-10-10
This book is wonderful for those of us who are just learning how to use SAS!
Whew, this book saved me!.......2007-10-01
I've only read two chapters of this book, but compared to the text and course notes my instructor gave out....this book helps me greatly!!
Excellent book to learn SAS with.......2007-09-07
This is an excellent book to learn SAS with, it goes through everything you need to know to get up and running with SAS. Unlike SAS manuals that go on and on for hundreds of pages talking about everything but what you need to know to do something, this book gets you up and running in very little time. I highly recommend it for anyone who needs to be able to become functional in SAS quickly.
Excellent for new SAS user, but...........2007-08-10
This is excellent for any new SAS user but the topics are introductory. If you are SAS naive and trying to solve a specific statistical problem in a short time, it won't be helpful to you.
Book Description
Used by hundreds of thousands of students since its first edition, INTRODUCTION TO PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS continues to blend the best of its proven coverage with new innovations. While retaining the straightforward presentation and traditional outline for descriptive and inferential statistics, the Twelfth Edition incorporates exciting new learning aids like MyPersonal Trainer, MyApplet, and MyTip to ensure that students learn and understand the relevance of the material. The book takes advantage of modern technology, including computational software and interactive visual tools, to facilitate statistical reasoning as well as the understanding and interpretation of statistical results. In addition to showing how to apply statistical procedures, the authors explain how to meaningfully describe real sets of data, what the statistical tests mean in terms of their practical applications, how to evaluate the validity of the assumptions behind statistical tests, and what to do when statistical assumptions have been violated. This new edition retains the statistical integrity, examples, exercises and exposition that have made it a market leader, and builds upon this tradition of excellence with new technology integration.
Customer Reviews:
Unfortunately Book Required By Professor!.......2007-09-09
I purchased textbook because it was required by my Biostatistics professor in my graduate program. Personally, I do not like the book. It makes problems more complicated than they need to be. I feel a good textbook is one in which you can read on your own and basically understand it without a whole lot of instruction and review by your professor. It would be very difficult to just read this textbook and then take an exam. I have only had the book for several weeks and I think it makes Biostats more complicated. I did purchase the supplement that goes with it, which is good for practice and the CD allows you to take self-test. If you are not savvy in stats, purchasing the supplemental practice book may be the thing for you to do if your professor requires use of the textbook.
Poorly written freshman level probability and statistics book.......2007-07-19
First, I cant believe that people actually used this book in a graduate class. I taught out of this book to freshmen.
A lot of the notation in this book is horrible and I feel this makes it harder for people new to the subject to read. Also there are very few exercises for the students to practice. In addition, too many of the answers in the back of the book are incorrect (this really confuses students).
I will not be teaching out of this book again.
Very poorly written........2004-03-15
I had to buy this book for an introductory graduate stats class. This book assumes you have some knowledge of stats and so provides very brief explanations for most concepts. This is a big problem for students with little or no stats background.
Another problem is that there are too few examples. Considering their meager explanations, one would hope they would at least provide enough examples to help students understand the concepts. But they usually provide only one or two problems, which are woefully inadequate.
Also, the CD is totally useless. Most of the practice is multiple choice, which I think is pretty silly for a stats class. In addition, there is no explanation for how they got to the answer, so if you can't figure it out and choose the wrong answer, you're out of luck for any explanation.
I stopped using this book for my course and instead began using Elementary Statistics, A Step by Step Approach by Bluman. This book is excellent; it explains everything from step 1. There are also many, many examples and lots of pictures to help you further understand stats. Also, they explain very clearly when you should use the different formulas, which I found extremely helpful in bringing all the concepts together.
Disappointing.......2004-01-16
The text we used for our undergrad Stats class covered the exact same material as this text, which we used for a graduate level class and which cost about 60 bucks more, but the undergrad text was written more clearly, concisely and logically. We even found a mistake in one of the tables in the back of this book.
An "easy" introduction but lacks content.......2003-09-18
Author: Computer Science/Mathematics Undergraduate at Cameron University
This book was required for an introductory non-calculus based statistics course at my school and it turned out to be a mixed bag. The theories are explained well in most cases but the book doesn't have enough examples for all of the theorems. Many times only one case is explained in dynamic situations leaving this reader more than a little lost. Usually the theorems are explained well enough that this is not a big deal, but not so in every case. So there tends to be those points where the student may get a little stuck without assistance from their professor.
Another problem I found was that the book was a little bit dumbed down in many areas. This book uses no calculus, so the theories are presented often without the mathematical rigor required to properly formulate accurate results. The book still presents the theorems and formulas in a way where the student can get something out of this without calculus, but it becomes a problem later in the book in the sections on regression. For a non-calculus based class like the one I took, this is all unavoidable, so the book handled the situation well considering the constraints.
This book presents a very light introduction to statistics and is good prep for more advanced statistics courses, but as a stand-alone only the most basic material is presented since it is non-calculus based and the material is spread thin between combinatorics, probability, binomial distributions, normal distributions, t distributions, ANOVA tests, regression, non-parametric statistics, etc... To attain a significant amount of useful knowledge you really need to buy separate books tackling each of these subjects independantly, so this book is really unneccessary even for an introductory text but might serve well the student who needs to be eased into statistics lightly or just wants a brief overview of the subject.
Book Description
Get the Statistics Book That's Sweeping the Nation!
Appropriate for All Levels--Undergraduate to Doctorate Programs in Every Discipline!
This new edition of Field's bestselling textbook provides students of statistical methods with everything they need to understand, use and report statistics - at every level. Written in Andy Field's vivid and entertaining style, and furnished with playful examples from everyday student life (among other places), the book forms an accessible gateway into the often intimidating world of statistics and a unique opportunity for students to ground their knowledge of statistics through the use of SPSS. The text is fully compliant with the latest release of SPSS (version 13).
Key updates in
Second Edition:
- More coverage with completely new material on non-parametric statistics, loglinear analysis, effect sizes and how to report statistical analysis
- Even more student-friendly features, including a glossary of key statistical terms and exercises at the end of chapters for students to work through, with datasets and answers to chapter exercises on the accompanying CD-ROM
- A larger and more easy-to-reference format: notation in each section identifies the intended level of study while the new 2-color text design enhances the features in the book and, together with the larger format, provides extra clarity throughout
- A companion website is available at
www.sagepub.co.uk/field, containing resources for both students and instructors: a testbank of MCQs for students to test their own knowledge; online glossary in flash card format; multiple choice questions and answers to use for class assessment – available on restricted access basis to instructors via entry password; and PowerPoint Slides of all formatted artwork in the textbook for instructors to include in their own lecture slides.
Andy Field is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at The University of Sussex, U.K. where his success in making statistics accessible was recognized with a teaching award in 2001.
"The Second Edition of Andy Field's
Discovering Statistics Using SPSS is an excellent book and a valuable addition to the teaching of statistics in the behavioral sciences. The title of the book accurately reflects the approach taken. This is not simply a primer on how to use SPSS, but is a very good statistics text using SPSS as a vehicle for illustrating and expanding on the statistical content of the book. At the same time it also serves as a manual for SPSS, and has taught me things that I had not known about the software. I find this flexible approach to the blending of content and software to be an effective way of teaching the material. It is impossible to review this book without commenting on Andy's particular style. I enjoyed it immensely and think that it would appeal to both students and their instructors. It is refreshing to see someone who doesn't take himself too seriously."
-- David C Howell, Professor Emeritus,
University of Vermont
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic book!.......2007-09-30
I could not have lived through my dissertation without this book. It finally helped me to conceptually understand statistics.
Also,(many of) his jokes are belly-busting funny. I used one humorous musing in my oral defense about Fisher's alpha levels:"I wonder how different my career would be if Fisher had woken up that day in 90% type of mood."
Stats and Andy Field.......2007-08-19
Andy's book is an excellent aid in learning statistics. If you want the executive summary (aka cliff notes), Andy provides sections where you can get a quick overview of a specific test. If you want the details, Andy provides those also in his book.
I used his book to help me in my doctoral quest, when I was in my second statistics class as a supplemental text. However, it is of a quality that any person seeking to learn more about stats will come away with knowledge of how stats can help us know more about the world in which we live.
Easy Read and Comprehensive too.......2007-08-04
In my job, I often train others how to use SPSS. This book comes up in conversation a lot. It is outstanding. I have come to the conclusion that if a serious user of SPSS's statistical features is to get only one reference; this is it. Something I have noticed is that when I meet someone that has spent time with the book, the are invariably quite good at SPSS. Even if they may not have mastered all the techniques in this large book, they know their stuff.
The Pallant book SPSS Survival Manual, which I have also reviewed, is designed to help survive a first course (and presumably last) in basic statistics. The Field book, however, could be revisited again and again, each time reaching a deeper understanding.
I already know the statistics in this book well, so I can't claim that this book has taught me the basics, but it simultaneously covers all the major topics of interest while keeping it as simple as possible. I wish I had existed earlier in my career. The main advantage to users of SPSS is that all of the examples are SPSS examples. However, make no mistake, this is a serious introduction to statistics, not merely a point and click guide. It is not current with version 15.0, but I don't think this is a major strike against it, given the excellent review of theory. If, however, you really need to keep up on the current features like I do, you will want to consider books in addition this one. Consider one or more of the three Norusis books depending on your level and needs.
Outstanding Source for SPSS.......2007-07-15
This is one of the best statistics and SPSS guidebooks that I have seen. I believe that it can be very useful for novice to expert. It is both technical and conceptual and can function as a textbook for statistics as well as an operational handbook for navigating through SPSS. Although it is based on SPSS 13.0, I have found it to be quite applicable to the SPSS version 15.0 that I am using. This book is an invaluable source for the completion of my doctoral dissertation and I would highly recommend it for the student or advanced statistician! B. Cliff, PhD Candidate, Western Michigan University
Better than any graduate level statistics course I have taken.......2007-06-14
I am a 4th year PhD student and wish I had discovered this book earlier. It is far better than any of the graduate level statistics course I have taken, and definitely better than any of the textbooks I have seen. In fact, I have thrown out all my other statistics textbooks - this is the only one I need. Aside from explaining the theory in an easy to understand way, Andy Field provides the practical aspect that no other texts or courses do (or, if they do, they fail to link it to the theory). Field shows you how to use SPSS to implement the theory in an easy, step by step way; he even tells you how to report the results in APA format. Don't waste your money on any other statistics textbooks!
Book Description
As the SAS© programming language continues to evolve, this guide follows suit with timely coverage of the combination statistical package, database management system, and high-level programming language. Using current examples from business, medicine, education, and psychology, Applied Statistics and the SAS Programming Language is an invaluable resource for applied researchers, giving them the capacity to perform statistical analyses with SAS without wading through pages of technical documentation.
Includes the necessary SAS statements to run programs for most of the commonly used statistics, explanations of the computer output, interpretations of results, and examples of how to construct tables and write up results for reports and journal articles. Illustrated with SAS Graph⢠output. Provides readers with ample models for developing programming skills.
For anyone interested in learning more about applied statistics and the SAS programming language.
Customer Reviews:
Poor book.......2007-03-20
I hoped more. It is a very basic book, with elemental examples and no clear directions on the best use of SAS.
Great for real life applications.......2007-01-01
Great book.. It is a great asset to my SAS library.
Too much unecessary detail about reading in data.......2006-11-10
Theres just too much unecessary material in this book about ways to read in data etc. Its all unecessary cos like myself most professional analysts and statisticians have access to SAS enterprise guide, which is incredibly powerful and so much less time consuming. The programming language is only useful for algorithms these days, as most professionals havent got the time to be debugging code all day. The text covers nothing about cluster analysis either which is central to a lot of multi variate analysis.
The mathematics and statistical detail is of far more interest and importance to us in the working environment than reading in of files.
Poor value.......2006-10-14
The book can be helpful to college students, but is of little benefit to more seasoned statisticians. The title notwithstanding, most of its chapters deal with general-purpose SAS programming; the rest (totaling 100-150 pages) offer a very basic review of REG, TTEST, LOGISTIC and FACTOR procedures, something that you can easily find online. (Check out the SAS tutorials offered by UCLA). I like and recommend Ron Cody's other books, but not this overpriced softcover.
Blergh.......2006-09-13
I did not like this book. The organization was abysmal, and I decided to sell it back to the college bookstore for use by future hapless students, because it is not good as a reference guide.
I did not like how the author seemed to gear the book to an audience that is terrified of their computers or anything dealing with *gasp* math.
Average customer rating:
- Don't believe it!
- professors choice
- Formats are very difficult to read
- A good book
- Respectable
|
Statistical Inference
George Casella , and
Roger L. Berger
Manufacturer: Duxbury Press
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ASIN: 0534243126 |
Book Description
This book builds theoretical statistics from the first principles of probability theory. Starting from the basics of probability, the authors develop the theory of statistical inference using techniques, definitions, and concepts that are statistical and are natural extensions and consequences of previous concepts. This book can be used for readers who have a solid mathematics background. It can also be used in a way that stresses the more practical uses of statistical theory, being more concerned with understanding basic statistical concepts and deriving reasonable statistical procedures for a variety of situations, and less concerned with formal optimality investigations.
Customer Reviews:
Don't believe it!.......2007-10-21
This book is absolute misery! I would like to echo another review that basically stated if you have to take a class with this book, just drop it now and save yourself the grief. Truer words were never spoken! The Preface states that the prerequisite is 1 year of calculus. That is an outrageous lie! Maybe if you took calculus at Princeton or MIT, you will have a fighting chance. Otherwise you better have the sophistication of writing and understanding proofs that are on par with a real analysis background, and you will definitely need a firm grasp of all the major combinatorial identities and proof techniques before you even attempt to read it, let alone destroy your GPA with it! There is a solution manual floating around the internet, and that too is worthless. Most of the proof techniques used in that rotten book end up as handwaving, and if you have a well trained professor, you will get crushed trying to use some of those techniques. Many of the answers in the solutions manual are just wrong as my professor has PROVEN to us on a number of occasions. The bottom line is dont believe anyone who tells you that 1 year of calculus is enough to read and understand this book. It simply does not apply to most of us, and Casella and Berger should be ashamed of themselves for trying to pass this off as a first year graduate textbook for anyone other than a pure mathematician.
professors choice.......2007-10-16
This is the second edition of an excellent book. Casella and Berger put together a text that many faculty began choosing for the first graduate ciurse in mathematical statistics. This second edition is improved over the first and puts more emphasis on the algorithms than the asymptotics. It covers modern topics like resampling and is verywell presented.
When I was a graduate dtudent we used Ferguson and Cox and Hinkley and we also used Lehmann's book for hypothesis testing. This book starts with basic probability and goes on to cover all the bases. It has everything one needs in a modern text on mathematical statistics. I have seen it referenced very often in statistics articles that I had to get a copy for myself in spite of the high price.
Formats are very difficult to read.......2007-09-28
I find this book very difficult to read. There are no set margins, and the font set is the same for an example, definition or for a Theory. Trying to find what you are looking for is very time consuming. additionally, the examples are predominantly proofs (which are good), but there are few for applied problems, and the explanations are not very thourough. I would recommend Sheldon Ross Introduction to Probability since it covers the same material, is readable with formatting, and has numerous examples. For an even simpler book to understand, choose Ross, Probability a First Course.
A good book.......2007-07-23
I studies parts of this book years ago, during my grad school days. I found it clear, interesting and well organized. Some reviewers have complained of the low weight given to Bayesian statistics. This is true, this textbook is mostly for folks who want to learn about a frequentist approach. With this caveat, I think it's a very nice introduction to statistics for someone like me who uses statistics within the boundaries of basic applied econometrics. There are typos, but I believe you can find an errata online, which you should be able to locate easily with a google search.
Respectable.......2007-07-10
Second year Ph.D. student at Iowa State University.
Covers soft non-measure-theoretic probability theory and statistical theory.
Not extremely rigorous. Appropriate for undergraduates and first-year Master's students. Not appropriate for Ph.D. level courses.
I fear that I may be reiterating what the other reviewers have already said, but I'll put in my two cents anyway. I used Hogg/McKean/Craig's "classic" "Introduction to Mathematical Statistics" for my undergraduate theory class and this one for my Master's level class. I must say that this one was a little bit clearer but omits important topics more often. It's a decent text, but it has its flaws.
First off, I'll talk about the exercises. There is a good amount of variety in problem difficulty ranging from hilariously trivial to taxing, but never too taxing. If you are teaching this class to a mixture of undergraduates and entry-level graduates, you shouldn't have too much trouble coming up with a sizeable list of problems appropriate for one group or the other. However, it will take some work to determine which problems are the difficult ones. Some of the problems that look the easiest are the hardest, which is fine, but they are not arranged or noted in any way so that you can tell which are the hard ones. The trivial ones always come first, but then the exercises jump back and forth between medium difficulty problems and hard problems. Also, I sometimes questioned the problem quality. The problems help the student master the skills, but they don't always come off as relevant in any other way. It's nice when a theory text provides just that--theory, but then let's students see the applications of the theory in the problem set. There is some of this, especially in the early sections on combinatorics (though they were rather contrived), but there should have been more. Another concern that I had is not the book's fault. Since this is a rather popular text, solutions to over half of the problems can be found online. This makes it difficult for the instructor to curb cheating. However, it could be seen as a good thing in one sense, since students like myself often work on non-assigned problems and it's nice to have the solutions readily available.
As far as examples and explanations of theories go, the book is a mixed bag. It seems to do well in the early chapters (probability theory), but it doesn't take extra care in the later, more difficult chapters. I had the hardest time with the Hypothesis Testing chapter. The examples for some of the concepts seemed too slim (usually one per theorem) and the ones presented didn't do a very good job at facilitating understanding. This continued to be a problem in much of the latter half of the book. As far as the proofs go, they are not poorly written, but they often emphasis algebra and formulae over understanding.
Regarding content, the book is a little bit too narrow in its focus. Bayesian statistics is touched on, but it is essentially a text on the theory behind classical statistics. I am of the opinion that classical statistics should be given more weight in an introductory theory class, but I also think that Bayesian statistics deserves more attention than it receives here. Also, it would have been nice to see more information on topics such as non-parametric statistics (virtually absent) and incomplete data. Additionally, it covered quite a bit about general hypothesis testing, but it didn't cover very many commonly used tests. I think that coverage of these tests is important in such a class so that students can see why these tests are used and to know just how important the assumptions behind the tests are. Another omission was that of real world applications (though they aren't entirely absent). I know it's a theory book, but that doesn't mean that applications should be avoided to this degree. Although I wasn't happy about all of these omissions, I can say that what was covered was organized fairly well. Overall, the topics were presented in a logical progression.
One final note: typos and errors. They aren't abundant, but there were more than I would have liked to have seen. There's about as many as most texts on this topic, so it's not a game-breaker.
Book Description
The 2nd edition of this successful book has several new features. The calibration discussion of the basic LIBOR market model has been enriched considerably, with an analysis of the impact of the swaptions interpolation technique and of the exogenous instantaneous correlation on the calibration outputs. A discussion of historical estimation of the instantaneous correlation matrix and of rank reduction has been added, and a LIBOR-model consistent swaption-volatility interpolation technique has been introduced.
The old sections devoted to the smile issue in the LIBOR market model have been enlarged into several new chapters. New sections on local-volatility dynamics, and on stochastic volatility models have been added, with a thorough treatment of the recently developed uncertain-volatility approach. Examples of calibrations to real market data are now considered.
The fast-growing interest for hybrid products has led to new chapters. A special focus here is devoted to the pricing of inflation-linked derivatives.
The three final new chapters of this second edition are devoted to credit. Since Credit Derivatives are increasingly fundamental, and since in the reduced-form modeling framework much of the technique involved is analogous to interest-rate modeling, Credit Derivatives -- mostly Credit Default Swaps (CDS), CDS Options and Constant Maturity CDS - are discussed, building on the basic short rate-models and market models introduced earlier for the default-free market. Counterparty risk in interest rate payoff valuation is also considered, motivated by the recent Basel II framework developments.
Customer Reviews:
Best book on interest rate models.......2002-12-14
This is the best book available on interest rate models. Very detailed. Much more focused and readable than Rebonato's book. More pragmatic and explicit than Musiela and Rutkowski. Not as theoretical as Hunt and Kennedy. James and Webber also looks very good, but I'm not that familiar with it. All other books have only bits and pieces on interest rates.
The best book I have read on the subject.......2002-05-06
With all the due respect to the other authors I would say that if one is interested in a good theoretical book whihc is also good on the implementation side then the book of Brigo and Mercurion is definetly the best book I have ever read on the subject.
Anyone interested in implementing the LMM/BGM/MSS model in practice is well advised to read it.
I would just say that this is certainly a must have in the field.
New stuff and nice overview: hard to beat!.......2002-01-17
In the late nineties I went through Brigo's innovative work on stochastic nonlinear filtering with differential geometry techniques. I was favorably impressed by results and style, particularly in his dissertation and in his 'geometry in present day science' very readable overview. Interesting results are found and nicely told with accurate - but not pointlessly complicated - advanced mathematics for the problems at hand, I reasoned.
I've followed a similar path from control to finance, and having worked with interest rate models, I couldn't help but order this Brigo-Mercurio book. I had high expectations 'cause these two guys are working in a bank on the real thing.
Sure enough I'm not disappointed.
1-factor models are handled with great care, a ton of formulas and recipes are given. I've never seen this kind of analysis of pricing with Gaussian 1-f models. The new upgrade of the CIR model is interesting and accurate. "CIR++" is now my favorite 1-f model. I like the treatment of lognormal 1-f models and the explanation of Monte Carlo and trees -- the flow-chart for Bermudan swaptions is crystal clear! Plots of market implied structures and volatility calibration are useful additions.
The chapter on 2-f extensions has one of the best discussions on volatility, and two tons of useful formulas/recipes. Two dimensional trees!
The HJM chapter size is OK. I agree - the useful models embedded in HJM are short rate models and market models.
Market models - these three chapters alone are worth the book. You'll find yourself nodding as you read the guided tour. They make it look easy all the time. The exposition is focused, clear, intuitive, detailed. There's also new stuff, just check the calibration discussion! Smile modeling begins with a brilliant tour and ends with Brigo-Mercurio's new approach - the mixing dynamics - deserving a whole chapter if expanded.
The detailed explanation on products is a much welcome original addition. Cross currency derivatives!
Quotes - as in Brigo's old work - are a pleasant diversion while reading. The 500 and more pages are a treat given the competitive price.
Still there's room for improvements - more "CIR2++"! Something on 3-f models. Historical estimation of the correlation matrix and low-rank optimized approximations. Expand smile modeling! More hedging. Something on structured products. Cross currency libor model. chapter 9 - other interest rate models - sounds out of place and can be suppressed for other things.
This book rings true and has useful teachings for students, academics and practitioners. Although it requires some background in stochastic calculus, it's hard to beat on the pricing front. Kudos to Brigo and Mercurio! It only harms there aren't enough books like this.
Nicely written overview of interest rate models.......2001-12-15
This recent book, written by two Italian "quants" Mercurio & Brigo, gives a nice and accessible overview of interest rate models which is a compromise between the practitioner viewpoint, expressed for ex. in Rebonato's book "Interet Rate option models"
and the theoretical viewpoint such as the one in Musiela & Rutkowski.
The authors, themselves PhDs in quantitative finance/ applied maths, wrote this book while working as quants in an Italian bank and this first hand contact with the market gave them a
practical view on the subject which markes this book very interesting.
The book contains a "rational" catalogue of models used in practice ( as opposed to models which are impossible to implement!).
In contrast with academic books on interest rate modeling which deal with HJM formulation, there is a lot of emphasis here on LIBOR and Swap market models
(BGM -Jamshidian models) which reflects the current market practice. This is a positive point since there are not many books with details on implementing and using these "market models".
Part II: Interest rate models in practice is particularly useful because it deals with implementation and calibration which, as any practitioner knows, are important and usually delicate issues.
However calibration issues are dealt with somewhat lightly, especially recent developments on modeling cap/swaption smiles
are not included here.
This book can also be used for a graduate level/PhD course on interest rate models.
There are a lot of numerical examples in the book and mathematics is kept to the necessary level while keeping the
approach both rigorous and understandable.
Overall, it is one of the best books written on the subject.
I highly recommend it to PhD students, quants and researchers interested in this field.
Well written and useful book.......2001-11-04
In my humble opinion, this is the best book on Interest Rate modeling out there. The writing style is clear and focused and the appendices are fantastic. The book is rigorous but someone with some background in Stochastic Calculus will find it easy to follow. If you need refresher, dont worry the authors have you covered, see the appendix on Stochastic Calculus. Not an introductory book. Very exciting book.
Customer Reviews:
Good.......2007-09-27
Its a really good book for starters, especially with a weak background in math.. it may be little too exhaustive but overall I think its a good deal!!!
Good in theory, short on examples.......2007-02-20
First all, everyone wishing to learn probability comes from different background, math level, and motivation. There is no book that suits all. Recently I needed to know something about moment generating functions. With all my advanced engineering background though, I find it difficult to get into probability.
So I bought the following supposedly introductory texts: Ross, DeGroot, Stirzaker, Bersekas & Tsitsiklis. To me, Ross seems like a review lesson to cram for finals; it's choke full of examples but fairly spare in exposition. DeGroot is the opposite, long on descriptions but short on examples; by the time it finishes describing the problem, you have forgotten how to solve it. Probability is set up more as a prelude to statistics in the second half of the book. Stirzaker calls his book "elementary" the way Sherlock Holmes dismissed a case after slogging all night through the English bogs. It is more for the well-drilled boys from elite British "public" (private actually) schools. Bersekas comes closest to what I look for in a text, straightforward in prose with a judicious selection of examples to explain theory.
For beginners, the best approach I found, in the end, was to go the local community college and buy the text used for Finite Math. Usually, there are 3 to 4 chapters that introduce probability.
Such a text is aimed an audience from wider academic and language backgrounds, as community colleges are mandated to do. Therefore, probability is taught in simple, plain-spoken language crafted through multiple editions. One such is Finite Math, by Karl J. Smith; however, many others like it will do. For self-study, one might start in the chapter on probability to understand the author's approach, then go back a chapter or two to pick up the permutation and combinatorial math needed to calculate probability. Another alternative is just to enroll in a Finite Math course at a community college. Generally, such a course stops at Markov's chain which is enough to get you jump started in probability.
In any case, a good Finite Math text gives plenty of examples with clear, succinct, and layman-like explanation to help you tackle Ross' book or supplement any other at a higher level. If you plan to apply probability to your work, then shop around for another text after you get the basics. The thicker tomes delve more into theory which is good because real life problems are seldom like the examples given. However you can't go wrong by planting your feet solidly on a good Finite Math text first
A Lucid Introduction to the Underlying Math.......2007-01-11
DeGroot's text is an introduction to the mathematical side of probability and statistics. Of the books on that subject, it is by far the most lucid I have seen. Its intended audience will likely find it useful for self study or for supplemental study in comparable courses that use other textbooks.
This book is not an applied, take-you-by-the-hand tutorial on applied statistical techniques, nor is it a failed take-you-by-the-hand tutorial on applied statistical techniques. It is not a text for the social scientist who wishes to learn statistics at home.
DeGroot's text is what it is, and I recommend it enthusiastically in its intended contexts.
Do Not Use For Self Study.......2006-10-30
This book is not meant for self study. This book is too theoretical, and it does not give enough basic examples. It is too abstract. I do not recommend this book to anyone.
Good Book ? Yes....For Self Study? NOOOOO !!.......2006-03-09
I am doing a self study and do not have any facility to get help of any instructor. I purchased the book after got good reference from some of my friends. The content of the book is pretty good...BUT when it comes to the problems...there are a very very few worked out examples (as usual they are the easiest ones)...Addition to that the publisher decided to earn every bits of pennies. So they created a Student's solution manual. No where in the publisher's site anything mentioned about the manual. But when I purchased , found that the manual has solution for ONLY Odd numbered solution (for them the answers are given in the original book). I was wondering whether they have another solution manual for EVEN numbered problems...!!!
The instructor's manual is out of stock and you cannot download it from the publisher's site (unless you are an Instructor which I am not).
Now I am wondering how I can get help on the even numbered problems....any idea???
Book Description
In its first edition, Statistics set a new standard for introductory texts, written in accessible language that teaches students how to think about statistical issues through real-world examples, such as political polls and Galton's regression paradox, and in terms of models that underlie statistical inference. Retaining these core strengths, the Fourth Edition adds a diverse body of new examples, exercises, and data sets, and has been thoroughly updated to reflect the most recent developments in the field.
Customer Reviews:
Math can be fun! :-).......2007-07-16
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.......2006-11-06
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.......2006-06-24
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.......2006-04-28
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!!!.......2006-02-17
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.
Book Description
In the numbers explosion all around us in our modern-day dealings, the buzzword is data, as in, “Do you have any data to support your claim?” “The data supported the original hypothesis that . . .” and “The data bear this out. . . .” But the field of statistics is not just about data. Statistics is the entire process involved in gathering evidence to answer questions about the world, in cases where that evidence happens to be numerical data.
Statistics For Dummies is for everyone who wants to sort through and evaluate the incredible amount of statistical information that comes to them on a daily basis. (You know the stuff: charts, graphs, tables, as well as headlines that talk about the results of the latest poll, survey, experiment, or other scientific study.) This book arms you with the ability to decipher and make important decisions about statistical results, being ever aware of the ways in which people can mislead you with statistics. Get the inside scoop on number-crunching nuances, plus insight into how you can
- Determine the odds
- Calculate a standard score
- Find the margin of error
- Recognize the impact of polls
- Establish criteria for a good survey
- Make informed decisions about experiments
This down-to-earth reference is chock-full of real examples from real sources that are relevant to your everyday life: from the latest medical breakthroughs, crime studies, and population trends to surveys on Internet dating, cell phone use, and the worst cars of the millennium. Statistics For Dummies departs from traditional statistics texts, references, supplement books, and study guides in the following ways:
- Practical and intuitive explanations of statistical concepts, ideas, techniques, formulas, and calculations.
- Clear and concise step-by-step procedures that intuitively explain how to work through statistics problems.
- Upfront and honest answers to your questions like, “What does this really mean?” and “When and how I will ever use this?”
Chances are, Statistics For Dummies will be your No. 1 resource for discovering how numerical data figures into your corner of the universe.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent overview and/or review.......2007-09-21
Statistics for Dummies is an excellent overview of the fundamentals of statistics for those who have forgotten some of what they previously learned, those whose instructors left them dazed and confused, or those who just need a quick reference. Like all of the "for Dummies" books, it's not really intended to be a comprehensive instructional program or a definitive reference book. In my view, the book does exactly what it's intended to do.
Several reviewers have mentioned the lack of examples or exercises. They're right; however, there is a companion volume by the same author, Statistics Workbook for Dummies, that solves that problem. Why didn't they do it all in one book? Probably because it would have totaled over 600 pages.
So, this book won't teach you statistics from scratch, but it is a very good introductory level overview of the subject. Like all of the Dummies books, the format is attractive, the organization is clear, and the information is presented in small, easily digestible blocks. More importantly, the author uses just the right approach. She is both thorough and authoritative, but she doesn't assume much expertise among the readers. At the same time, she's never condescending.
This book is well worth the cost, and I recommend it highly.
Really concise.......2007-07-17
I recommend this book for all of those that, like me, need a way to start or remember basic principles of statistics. All the concepts are very clearly explained and come in blocks that can be read in a non-linear way.
Liked it very much.
"Consumer" should be in Title.......2007-07-15
While the book is useful, it should be made clear that this book is aimed at the consumer who has to interpret statistics that he/she reads about. This will be useful for the general public who are baffled by stuff that that is thrown at them, but I was hoping for something to help me get started with my own research problems. Only about 10% of the book does that.
It makes it simple.......2007-07-03
I struggled with statistics in college and could just not seem to grasp the relationships between the various pieces. This goes a long way toward explaining both what those pieces mean and how they fit together. Would recommend this book to anyone who needs or wants more than a superficial understanding of statistics.
Statistics for Dummies.......2007-05-13
Book was very informative and easy to understand. However it did not discuss many of the concepts needed for my statistics class.
Average customer rating:
- Cool
- Cartoons add little and subtract much
- A dry textbook + cartoons
- Not for the feint of heart
- Ok resource
|
Cartoon Guide to Statistics
Larry Gonick , and
Woollcott Smith
Manufacturer: Collins
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ASIN: 0062731025 |
Book Description
If you have ever looked for P-values by shopping at P mart, tried to watch the Bernoulli Trails on "People's Court," or think that the standard deviation is a criminal offense in six states, then you need The Cartoon Guide to Statistics to put you on the road to statistical literacy.
The Cartoon Guide to Statistics covers all the central ideas of modern statistics: the summary and display of data, probability in gambling and medicine, random variables, Bernoulli Trails, the Central Limit Theorem, hypothesis testing, confidence interval estimation, and much more--all explained in simple, clear, and yes, funny illustrations. Never again will you order the Poisson Distribution in a French restaurant!
Customer Reviews:
Cool.......2007-08-29
This book is so cool! It makes the topic clear and fun at the same time.
Cartoons add little and subtract much.......2007-08-23
I have a B.S. (from a school you haven't heard of) and an M.S. (from one you have) in mathematics, and I teach math, but probability and statistics was my _worst_ undergraduate math class (I avoided it in grad school). I came across this book, and I bought it on a chance. I'm sorry to say, it was wasted money...
1) The cartoons at best merely illustrate points made in the text; at worst they are irrelevant interruptions. For example, here we have a cartoon of the reader in a straightjacket after the text mentions calculus. And there's a cartoon of a man rolling dice. This sort of stuff does not advance the discussion.
2) The cartoon format reduces the space available for text. The discussion is therefore abbreviated and compressed; points are made once only, without examples, and often after skipping important steps. I think it's _more_ difficult than a standard textbook.
3) There are no exercises! Who ever heard of a math book without exercises? We learn by doing, I always tell my students, not by just reading or listening.
I think this book may be useful to a former student of statistics who wants a review but I can't think of anyone else who would get much out of it.
A dry textbook + cartoons.......2007-06-12
Whenever I try reading this book my eyes just gloss over. It's extremely dry material with cartoons added to every page to make it seem as if it'll be entertaining and easy to learn from but IMO it's neither. On the contrary, it would probably be best as a reference book. Almost every page has a new equation or symbol on it and I rarely felt that they were adequately discussed. "What does it do? When is it useful? What does it mean if the value is high/low?" are questions I constantly asked myself and the book doesn't take the time to answer.
Not for the feint of heart.......2007-05-19
Some people will complain that the book is difficult and/ or uninteresting. To this I say, "Dude, it's statistics! Mr. Gonick makes the best of a difficult subject. This is certainly not less friendly than your stats text book." If you want an easy laugh, get a Get Fuzzy compilation, if you want a different and more intuitive approach to statistics, this is your best bet.
Ok resource.......2007-05-13
My MBA program suggested this book to all incoming first years. In reading it so far, it outlines the concepts well, but doesn't give enough opportunity to practice them and get comfortable with them. I am not getting very much out of it, but I may use it as a resource when I am taking my actual stats class.
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