Statistics Demystified

by Stan Gibilisco

Popular science/hobbyist writer Stan Gibilisco covers every important aspect of basic (algebra-based) statistics, notation and jargon, describing, tables, graphs, randomness and uncertainty, probability principles, distributions, obtaining and interpreting data, correlation, causation, and more. You'll be able to learn more in less time, evaluate your areas of strength and weakness and reinforce your knowledge and confidence.

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction, Reference, Textbooks, Science

335 pages, Paperback

First published May 21, 2004

Reviews

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was enjoying this book by the time I got to the end of it. Starting it took some effort and online lookups to get more explanations on some concepts. I do now feel more confident with stats and stats jargon, which was the goal of reading this book.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Statistics Demystified is another book in the “Self-Teaching Guide” Demystified series. As with most of the books in a series meant to teach, it begins with the Foundations, the basics of the mathematics that we will be getting into. It has the usual part where the book describes what is and what is not statistical data. The true meat and potatoes of the book get into the mathematical aspects of probability, which is actually pretty simple. You have a possible outcome and a chance of it happening and you have to determine if some events are related or not and so on.

Once you start to add Multiple Disjoint outcomes to the mix it gets slightly messy but it isn’t too bad. The math doesn’t really get too heavy at all. It is mainly charts, graphs, tables and so on. The math used to analyze the data is simple enough and somewhat interesting. All in all, the charts and graphs are readable, it demonstrates how to read this data and interpret it and it does so pretty well.

It has workable problems and plenty of examples, making this book pretty effective if you don’t have another way to learn this material. Another little thing about this book that doesn’t really matter is that it was printed in 2004, so while it isn’t really up to date, there isn’t really much that changed in the realm of Statistics. It was written by Stan Gibilisco, a person that I have heard of before due to the books that I have.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

switched from my physics book to this as it is really what I need to move forward on some projects at work. Nothing really new from the fun little intro to books as it is mostly the concepts. the bit of math was helpful but really not hard. Moved on to a stats 2 for dummies so we will see how well prepared I am.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been tutoring math privately for the last 5 years, and I really enjoy the whole Demystified series. While I do not think they are particularly useful for someone trying to learn these skills for the first time, they are great for anyone trying to get a quick refresher course. They have also been a great resource to me as a tutor; I often pull practice problems that give my students a slightly different approach to some topics.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't as helpful as I had hoped it would be. Used as an adjunct to my other Statistics book for my home schooled daughter.

[Jeff La Marca]

non-fiction,statistics

[Uncommon Student · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book, but not exactly what I needed for ALEKS Statistics.

[John Goetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be prepared to dig in.

Great book. Can be overwhelming if not taken in bite sized pieces. The author recommends a certain pace and I agree with his recommendation.