Chances Are: The Only Statistic Book You'll Ever Need

Chances Are is the first book to make statistics accessible to everyone, regardless of how much math you remember from school.

When do you draw a bar graph and when a line graph? Although Slavin finally answers that question a few chapters after he poses it, his initial advice is that "sometimes one or the other looks more dramatic." Just about any basic statistics textbook would provide as good or better a statistics course, but this book by a former statistics professor and author of several mathematics guides nonetheless fills a niche. For one thing, it is brief (most of the pages are filled with step-by-step problem solutions); it is also basic, providing just enough statistical know-how to write or understand a business report. The author's politically conservative preferences come through in the text; the intended audience seems to be business people who want to brush up on statistics for professional development. For that purpose, this is an adequate self-study course for popular business math collections. In Slavin's words, "This book will not make you into an instant statistician, but you certainly will qualify as a number cruncher."?Amy Brunvand, Univ. of Utah Lib., Salt Lake City
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