Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Student Solutions Manual: Elementary Statistics Picturing the World by Jay R. Schaffer, Ron Larson, Betsy Farbe

Student Solutions Manual: Elementary Statistics Picturing the World by Jay R. Schaffer, Ron Larson, Betsy Farbe


Find the "Student Solutions Manual: Elementary Statistics Picturing the World by Jay R. Schaffer, Ron Larson, Betsy Farbe" on Sale !

Includes complete worked-out solutions to all of the Try It Yourself exercises, the odd-numbered exercises, and all of the Chapter Quiz exercises.









Student Solutions Manual: Elementary Statistics Picturing the World by Jay R. Schaffer, Ron Larson, Betsy Farbe

Includes complete worked-out solutions to all of the Try It Yourself exercises, the odd-numbered exercises, and all of the Chapter Quiz exercises.

Check Price & More Info >> Student Solutions Manual: Elementary Statistics Picturing the World by Jay R. Schaffer, Ron Larson, Betsy Farbe


Student Solutions Manual: Elementary Statistics Picturing the World by Jay R. Schaffer, Ron Larson, Betsy Farbe Review


I was assigned this book for teaching my 100-level college intro-stats course. It is much better organized than the previous book I used, but it isn't as thorough. Some topics, such as calculating a median and other percentiles using depth on an ordered list, are simply omitted in this book.

It seems that some topics are omitted or glossed over because they might be too complex for "Elementary" statistics. On the other hand, the more complex topics in the book, such as hypothesis testing -- a topic that students consistently have a hard time understanding -- are not covered in enough depth.

Our students are sold this book in a package with videos on CD, a study guide, and a couple other things. This package is, in my opinion, worthless to a student in a class. They may be valuable to someone teaching themselves, or to a student in an online class, but for a live class, I think they are a waste of money.

The CD videos show a teacher working through the topics and some of the problems in the book. However, the teacher seems to have, (hands flail) y'know, a highly repetitive, (hands flail) y'know, (hands flail) vocabulary (hands flail), and it's (hands flail) y'know (hands flail) really hard to (hands flail) y'know, watch him (hands flail) y'know, teach. Like his hands have a nervous tic or something. I'm sure I have my own quirks in class, but this guy... his hands are something else.

All in all, I think the book is pretty good, with solid examples, well-highlighted definitions and key points. The chapter exercises are good in that they start VERY easy and progress through up to reasonably difficult, while staying within the limits of the text.

I told my department head: I like the book, but I recommend it without the bonus materials (and associated costs!).