5 comments about Survival Analysis.

1. In this new edition, many errata are corrected and each of the theories has a reason why this is true. Although they may be more practical in view, it is very good to use them to learn Survival Analysis, which is more realistic in sense.

   In its Theoretical Notes and Practical Notes, there are a lot of different views and sights to show that which is the best to use. The examples are more or less good one and explained in a more detailed way than that in the 1st edition. A good-buy and must-read for those want to have a thorough view in this aspects. Read them carefully! Better than Cox's in this new edition. Buy and read this new edition!




2. In this new edition, most of the errata are corrected and the texts are explained in a more detailed way.

   The formulae are correct and the examples are explained in a more direct and expressive way than that in the 1st edition.

   The most valuable one is its Theoretical Notes and Practical Notes. They show a lot of different points of views.

   A good-buy and must-read for those want to have an intense level in Survival Analysis. Suitable for elementary and intermediate candidates to read and study.

   Ian Lauder




3. I am a computer scientist and using this book for my research to address a problem. This book is well written but of course target audience are people with solid background in probability theory and parameteric estimation (pattern recognition). Therefore please do not expect that author will teach you basic probability theory. Contents are more applied in nature therefore natural audience are staticians and researchers.



4. I used this book for a class in survival analysis (a graduate level biostats course) and I found it very useful. Much of the first several chapters are fairly quick relative to many graduate statistics texts and focuses on application with less emphasis on theory. Overall, I have no major qualms with the book. The author goes on a bit longer than necessary but I'd rather end up skimming text than be stuck deciphering terse material. This extra explanation also opens the book up to a wider audience.
   
   A solid understanding of basic statistics is necessary to get started in this book. To get more, 4+ semester-long statistics courses, at least one based in regression, would be ideal. A basic knowledge in mathematical analysis as it pertains to statistics (mainly dealing with convergence in law) will be beneficial to understanding some of the intricacies of the topics and answer many of the 'whys'.
   
   In conjunction with the course and the book, I worked problems in R with the 'survival' package, which I found very useful. (R is a free statistical program. A basic understanding of R would be necessary before trying to use the survival package -- I would recommend Dalgaard's book for an intro to R if this is of interest.) I have a good understanding of R and found the survival package documentation supplemented by rseek . org searches (when I got stuck) sufficient to figure out how to implement the survival functions in R.
   
   On the example setup and problems...
   at the end of each chapter, this book is a bit hit-or-miss. Some problems are good. Many are not. There is a lot of confusion created by some of the problems, which leads into the part of the book I take the most issue with. The authors refer to scattered examples in problems (take for example, referring to example 8.3 in problem 9.5). The thing is, Example 8.3 starts on page 251 and then it continues randomly throughout the remainder of the chapter until page 274 (I had to page through the chapter to find those page numbers). The examples in mid-to-late chapters can be very scatter-brained and some of the problems start to become this way as well. The authors seem to forget that keeping track of the 15-20 studies they use in this text is no small task and that they've spent a lot more time looking at them than others. Self-contained examples where I don't need to flip back to chapter 1 or some other example to read about the study would be really nice. The examples and problems could have been much more user-friendly to accelerate the learning process.



5. The authors present an intermediate level text on survival analysis introducing the concepts and techniques and providing many real examples. Covers all the standard methods including the Cox proportional hazard model (with stratification) and some methods not commonly covered including regression diagnostics and multivariate survival methods (including fraility models).

5 comments about Mathematical Statistics with Applications (Mathematical Statistics (W/ Applications)).

1. The text isn't "bad," but I would look elsewhere. Sections and exercises are numbered in an uncomfortable way. Important topics and formulae are hidden within dense paragraphs, instead of being visually offset. The overall graphic and textual communication works... barely. There is much room for improvement.



2. I had to use this text for my Stat Theory classes. This book is very frustrating in that it fails to mention some very useful theorems. Example: A problem from Ch. 3 asks: If Y is a random variable with moment-generating function m(t), and if W is given by W = aY + b, show that the m.g.f. of W is e^(tb)*m(at). In the section containing this problem, two theorems are omitted, one of which states that if X and Y are indep. random variables having m.g.f.'s Mx(t) and My(t), respectively, then Mx+y(t) = Mx(t)*My(t).
   
   Would have been nice to know this while trying to write the proof since one might not know this theorem and assume that Mx+y(t) = Mx(t) + My(t). You run into this situation again and again in this book, whereas you can buy a Schaum's Outline of Probability and Statistics for about 1/6th the price and it has this theorem. If you need to buy this book, I recommend Schaum's which also has a lot more worked problems to study. This book is another example of old professors writing a bad text to make themselves feel smarter than students who are 30 years younger then them and can't rediscover well-known theorems in their spare time.



3. If you have to have this particular book for a class, then you have no choice. But, if you don't, this book has a lot of problems with very little help in solving them, unless you obtain a solution manual.



4. I understood less about probability after reading the first few chapters of this book than before reading it. The wording is extremely vague because the author tries too hard to generalize, using abstract terms such as n, r, x, etc to describe everything and leaving you to decide for yourself which part of the problem these variables apply to in the practice problems (less than half of which have solutions, none of which are comprehensive). Thank goodness for Google and good free math help sites. The biggest problem with this book is the lack of explanations for the practice problems which differ from the examples and are much harder. The hardest practice problems are marked with asterisks but sadly even these are not explained. This is the second Statistics course I've taken and I feel as if this book is confusing everything I learned in the first one. If this book weren't required for class I'd burn it.



5. hard cover, the textbook is always in good condition
   useful content, the most widely used textbook in statistics
   price is bit high though, it is still worthy buying

4 comments about Applied Statistics in Business and Economics with St CDRom.

1. Purchased this book used not new, for $73.99 from a private dealer on Amazon. I would have to say that the text is easy to understand, lots of material (lots) included and covered, the CD included is quite helpful as well, since it provides chapter highlights in PowerPoint, practice quizzes and homeworks, tutorials and samples for Excel, and the "MegaStat" add-on for the Excel program, which enables users to fully utilize Excel's ability to perform statistical calculations. Good purchase overall at the used purchase price, not sure if the case would be the same at the retail price, just make sure that the text includes the CD.



2. My Prof really likes this book and has used previous editions too. My opinion - so far so good. In my limited review of the book the examples are good and the language is not technical. This course/book is part of my graduate studies in biology. The book is primarily business focused but with a profs help it is totally applicable to scientific data evaluation. Otherwise, it is approaching week 4 of 12 in my class and we haven't really relied on the book. My only real comment is to check with your campus bookstore/professor and see if it is supposed to come with a student version of Minitab (the software associated with the text). My online order did not come with Minitab, which I need for my stats course.



3. This book arrived quickly (within one week, standard shipping) and the seller informed me through mail when the product had been shipped. I found that very helpful. THe condition of the book was also very good,but there was some writing/markings on some of the pages. However, it wasn't enough that I was distracted or bothered by it.



4. This book was in very good condition with very little writing and no high lighting! It also contained the cd's that came w/ the book which was great.

5 comments about Statistics for Managers Using Microsoft Excel (5th Edition).

1. I'm only through chapter 3, but I've found

   * inconsistancies - not using the same term in the same manner; all through the chapter, it refers to class boundaries, but in the excersizes, they are called bins - you have to check out the solutions manual and figure out what they are asking for.

   * circular definitions - using the term in the definition of the term you are describing (ie, frumious = being frumious)

   * poor examples - when describing how to use an excel wizard to process data, it tells you to select E5:E12 - without describing what this range is supposed to be (bins? midpoints? data?)

   * incorrect answers in the solution manual (some are right, some are not)

   * PHStat does not function as specified in the book in all cases (ie, percentage polygons)

   Frankly, the book is a big waste of cash, and should not be selected as a book to be used for statistics classes - unfortunately, neither the students nor the profs at the school I'm attending had a choice. I'm having a hard time believing this is a THIRD edition, with all the errors. Either the authors or the publishers can screw up on a first edition, but it takes an effort for both to do it, much less three times.

   Too bad you can't give negative star reviews.




2. This textbook combines good readability and yet is also relatively detailed. Statistics For Managers Using Excel 3E is well organized, with plenty of examples that make understanding the concepts easy. The problems at the end of the Chapter are excellent at drilling the concepts in student's heads, and the companion CD is also useful.

   I will agree with the reviewers that mentioned the errors. There ARE some errors in this book, but overall compared to most other texts there are NOT a lot of them relatively speaking.

   Overall, an excellent textbook for students taking a beginning undergraduate level Stats course.




3. This book does not help with understanding statistics. The examples are confusing and often point out a problem but never solve or resolve the problem. Don't buy this book!



4. This purchase is what is recommended for my class.
   I received the book in half the shipping time. Great person to order from.



5. I purchased this book as a text for one of my classes, and I couldn't have been happier with my purchase from this seller. They offer very fast shipping, I received my book right on time for classes. I am looking forward to more titles that I need from this seller. Thank you very much for exceptional customer service!

3 comments about Essentials of Modern Business Statistics (with CD-ROM).

1. it's a text book. i needed it for class. if you need it for class too, then i'm sure it'll work out great.



2. My experience was great, I got the book I needed at a great price and got it quickly!!



3. My stats professor used the 2nd edition of this text for my MBA statistics class. It's a very readable book that explains the topics clearly and simply. You can almost teach yourself the material from the book without need of a professor. I recently re-read portions of the book for another class and found it easy to pick up the topics again. I wish that all of my texts were this well written. If you need a great book on statistics, then this is the one.

5 comments about The Practice of Business Statistics w/CD.

1. While the authors of texts in basic statistics always claim to the contrary, there is a repetitive sameness to the books. Decades ago, general agreement was reached as to what topics should be covered in the class. Although the advances in technology have made performing computations much easier, that has not led to significant differences in content. Therefore, the only factor that differentiates texts is the style of writing and the focus and quality of the applications.
   This book is advertised as being focused on how statistics is used in business, and the authors are effectively consistent in using examples applied to business. Their worked examples are almost exclusively taken from business settings and are appropriate for the current topic. The exercises follow the same pattern, they are numerous and answers to the odd-numbered ones are included in an appendix. The style of writing is at the right level for the introductory student.
   Another unique feature of the book is that it is the core for a total package that has seven additional supplementary chapters. These chapters are:
   
   *) Statistics for Quality: Control and Capability.
   *) Time Series Forecasting.
   *) One-Way Analysis of Variance.
   *) Two-Way Analysis of Variance.
   *) Nonparametric Tests.
   *) Logistic Regression.
   *) Bootstrapping Methods and Permutation Tests.
   
   The supplements are separate from the core book, if you are interested in using one of the supplementary chapters, you need buy only the ones you need. This is very sensible, as the core material is generally enough to fill any semester class.
   Since the statistics course that I teach is for students from all backgrounds, I will not be adopting this text for the class. However, if it was focused on the business student, I would.



2. This book is so terrible I cannot even begin to describe it.
   The format is unnatural and hard to get used to, especially if you're used to normal textbooks.
   It introduces a few facts, but the examples are just not very good and then it gives you problems to try out and then that format continues througout the whole chapter, making the whole learning experince very odd and uneven. I found it very hard to focus on the material because of that problem.
   The material is not hard to learn, if presented the right way, which this book does not do. I can't wait to sell it back.
   If you want to get a real understanding of statistics and actually remember some of it, I would advise you to try another book.



3. I teach a college course in basic statistics at least once a year and for some time have used the book "The Basic Practice of Statistics" by one of the authors of this one. I have no intention of switching to this book, but I did examine it with the idea of determining if it would be appropriate for a course in basic statistics for business.
   My conclusion is affirmative; there are a large number of worked examples that are applications of business scenarios. The discussions are clear, concise and there are a large number of associated diagrams, which are essential to the learning of statistics. I strongly recommend this book for courses in basic business statistics.



4. Thanks for the book! Really cheap and in great condition! I got this book for... a couple bucks! and somebody was trying to sell it to me for $80!!!



5. It came within a week and was in perfectly good condition! brand new! would definitely buy from this seller again!

5 comments about Schaum's Outline of Business Statistics Fourth Edition.

1. "This is a poorly presented text in terms of language."



2. Another fine book by Schaum's outline. For anyone who has lost touch with the world of statistics, this book is a must read. It has clear definitions, examples and complicated explanations if you wish to dig deeper. I recommend this book to all college students, undergraduate and even MBA students. For financial analysis, marketing, and social research, this book is wonderful.



3. As a teacher I have found this book very practical for my students. It has plenty of resolved exercises, 100% of them focused on Business and Economics. Also this book introduces Statistics in a more "informal" way that makes it easier for a non-mathematician student to understand. It lacks strong statistic theory so if you are looking for a more profound book this is not what you would like to choose. But in terms of exercises is the best.



4. But still as boring as watching grass grow! Honestly, the methodology of statistics/economics/finance/accounting, etc: is a major "yawn" for many. I personally excel at "applied economics", in other words, "How does this affect me/you/us?"
   
   My professor used this book as a supplement to his "Statistics II" class, and it was "above average" in that regard, as was he.
   
   Just remember, if you need this type of book to understand the methodology of "bean-counting", then this is better than any other I've seen in it's type. IT IS A VERY HARD SUBJECT, SO YOU MUST BREAK YOUR BACK AND CONCENTRATE- THIS BOOK WILL HELP YOU TO DO THAT. THERE IS NO MAGIC-BULLET BOOK, that I know of, FOR STATISTICS II!!! STUDY HARD!!!



5. very good book----I never read statistics before. Now I am securing A grade in weekly assignment refering this book

5 comments about Elementary Stochastic Calculus With Finance in View (Advanced Series on Statistical Science & Applied Probability, Vol 6) (Advanced Series on Statistical Science & Applied Probability, Vol 6).

1. This book may be fine if you have at least an undergraduate degree in math. I have an engineering degree with a minor in math, have read many books on quantitative finance, read math books and work math problems for furn, have several years' work experience in analyzing and hedging with derivatives, am taking a course in quantitative finance, and have worked many problems in stochastic calculus. I was actually MORE confused AFTER reading this book (I'm not exaggerating). This book should definitely not have "elementary" in the title.
   
   But whatever your level, there are other books that cover the topic much more clearly and comprehensively. Start with Nefti's Intro to the Mathematics of Financial Derivatives; it's the best. Then read Joshi's Concepts and Practices of Mathematical Finance. Then you may be able to understand Steele's Stochastic Calculus and Financial Applications. Steele doesn't pretend to be a book for beginners, but it is actually more comprehensible to beginners than Mikosch's book.
   
   But if you are more comfortable with reams of mathematical notation and do not require much explanation of that notation, Mikosch may be just what you want.



2. This book provides an excellent mild introduction of stochastic calculus and stochastic differential equations to someone like me who do not have a first mathematics degree (haven't done measure theories). Although the final chapter on application to finance is not as good as other financial maths books such as Joshi's Concepts and Baxter&Rennie's Financial Calculus. Overall, this book sets some firm grounds for further studies on stochastic calculus & financial maths. In addition, the price is low for this book with a hardcover.



3. First of all, and most importantly, this is a math book with some finance in it, not the other way around, so you need to know some math before tackling it! If you find Newtonian Calculus complicated, Stochastic Calculus (which, in the realm of mathematics, is not the easiest of topics to start with) is not for you.
   
   The aim of the book is not to present mathematical finance theory, such as option pricing or the Black and Scholes framework, etc... but simply to provide a little formalism and a lot of intuition allowing to better understand random processes and how they can be built at the infinitesimal level from Brownian Motion and previsible functions, and the macro properties that follow from there. Yes, random processes are at the heart of structured finance, but the goal of the author is simply to provide the tools necessary to better grasp financial applications... elsewhere. Therefore, Mikosh opted for an intuitive and rather informal approach presented in a mere 200 pages, which is quite refreshing in a field dominated by very technical and formal 500 page snoozers.
   
   Given the scope and objectives of the book, there is no doubt that this is one of the best (and most affordable) reference available to simply and quickly gain an applied understanding of basic Stochastic Calculus. It can be used as an introduction to the topic before tackling more difficult and thorough books on SDE, or simply as a means of getting familiar with the ideas of Stochastic Calculus without bothering too much with the details of the proofs and move on to finance applications.
   
   Being a strong believer that, at first, ideas are more important than the complex intricacies of formal proofs, this book allowed me to quickly gain a sound footing in SDE... Kudos to the author...



4. I came across stochastic differential equations in my work. I could simply have taken the rote formulas and scribbled away, but that approach never delivers wholly satisfactory results. When I translate a computation into the very unusual computing fabric in which I deal, I need to step past the last line in the proof. Many paths lead to that endpoint, all of which differ in how the mathematics matches the computing engine. Part of my job lies in mating the approach to a solution with the vehicle in which you approach it.
   
   Mikosch's slender volume has helped me immensely. It carries every sign of technical brilliance. More than once, an off-hand comment or a couple of lines of inequalities turned months of bafflement into moments of clarity - only the finest minds, Heisenberg among them, have done that for me. Somewhat into the critical insights, however, my own weakness blocked my climb toward the pinnacle of this book's conclusions.
   
   I'm not a mathematician. I'm a math user. I can hang with the probability side of this book as far as it goes, but my insight into calculus has suffered several decades of benign neglect. I hold onto the development well past the 3/4 point in this book, but I admit that my grasp loosens. I'm sure I can get more from the later sections, using either low-order approximations or an intensity of approach that competes with other demands on my attention. I'm still working, but I don't believe that I'll take in all of the understanding that Mikosch gives out.
   
   I am quite sure there is more in this slender book than I have extracted. That is not a problem in the book, but a mismatch between its goals and my preparation. It's helped and could help another person more, but leaves this reviewer looking for just a bit that the author assumed I wouldn't need.
   
   -- wiredweird



5. I found this textbook extremely teaching-oriented and an excellent introduction to a very hard subject, such as stochastic calculus. I would definitely recommend it for a Master's level financial engineering course.

5 comments about How to Prepare for the AP Statistics, 2007 3rd Edition, (Barron's How to Prepare for the Ap Statistics Advanced Placement Examination).

1. this book provides a very comprehensive review of the whole course. i read all of the sections and did all the practice problems at the end of each section. though i didn't have much time working on the 6 practice tests, the information i got from the review part itself helped me greatly on the AP test. i just took it a couple weeks ago and im confident that i got a 5 on it. w0000t



2. One thing that is seriously annoying about this otherwise solid book is that the author is apparently a major fan of professional basketball, and thinks nothing of interlarding the text with dozens of arcane references to the sport.
   
   Here's an example:
   
   "Consider the historgram of the yearly average assists per game figures for Jeff Hornacek (Phoenix and Houston)." (p. 11) As if it's not enough to mention an obscure player, must we pedantically specify that he played with both Phoenix and Houston?! (This is incorrect anyhow: it should be Phoenix and Philadelphia.) Surely this silliness will help to confuse any foreign or ESL user of this text.
   
   Thus if you're unclear on such basketball abstrusia as rebounds, assists, and three-point shots, this book is likely to strike you as a self-indulgent slog.
   
   On the other hand, if you love basketball as much as Sternstein evidently does, you'll find the text both invigorating and relevant.



3. This is probably the best AP Statistics book out there. It's very comprehensive and detailed.
   If you read and understand most of the material on here, there's almost no reason you will not get a 4 or 5.
   The only problem is with the practice tests. Many of the questions in the practice tests involve number crunching rather then testing if you know the concepts of statistics. When i took this test, i was quite surprised to see that almost all the questions were concept questions. I barely touched my calculator on this exam.



4. Barron's AP Stats Prep book is what got me my 5. I spent the year in Stats class not paying attention, not doing homework, and for the most part not understanding a single thing about stats. 2 weeks before the exam I went through Barron's front to back, and got a 5! The information is organized in an easy to use fashion, and there's plenty of practice problems.



5. When AP exams finally come along, many students realize (like myself and my friends), that we crammed the material before each class exam but never really committed it to memory. So, to save ourselves from getting lousy scores, we turn to prep books. Barron's has served me well in the past, so my friends and I all bought copies of this before the AP...and it was a lifesaver.
   
   Spending about four hours a day the week before the exam with this book worked wonders! It explained every statistical concept that we'd learned previously in a very clear, cogent manner (in fact, I really felt like I'd learned something after I read this). And, in true Barron's fashion, it left nothing untouched. From regression equations to chi-square tests, this book covers it all. And not only do you get a review of the material, you really get a comprehensive treatment of the material but in a less "frilly" and frivolous manner, so you don't have to wade through hundreds of lines of silly talk as is seen in so many textbooks.
   
   So, after reading this book and doing ALL of the exercises (they're harder than the real thing, so if you practice with these, you'll be set), I was well prepared for the AP statistics exam. When I took it, there wasn't a thing on there that I didn't know how to do, and it's largely thanks to this book!
   
   If you're looking to learn AP stats independently or are looking to brush up on course material before exams, then don't waste your time with any other stats book...read this one, and get that 5!

5 comments about At the Crest of the Tidal Wave.

1. Having read this book, as well as Ravi Batra's "Crash of the Millenium" and James Dale Davidson's "The Sovereign Individual", I can't help but point out that these are the same people that were telling us to expect a U.S.economic/financial market collapse throughout the '90s(see: "Blood in the Streets" and "The Great Reckoning" by Davidson/Rees-Mogg, "The Great Depression of 1990" by Batra, and Prechter's newsletters/special reports from that period). Obviously, they turned out to be just a tad off the mark. After a peruse of this material, have a look at one of Harry Dent's books for a look at the baby boom spending wave that continues through the latter half of this decade (Dent points out on his website that the current economic dip we are in is similar to the one that took place between 1920-1922, before the Roaring 20's market took off). The only way that the kind of boom the Spending Wave projects can ever take place would be if the majority are looking in the wrong direction. Material such as this book from Prechter, as well as Batra and Davidson, will do very nicely.



2. This book is a must read for financial survival. Prechter has an engaging writing style. His opinions are often outrageous and sometimes too extreme. This value of this book is in that it is so different from the conventional financial press.

   Almost alone Prechter predicted the great bull market back in 1979. He then called the top prematurely but at least he did warn this readers that a top was coming. The scope of Prechter's vision is awesome. He has charts with trendlines going back to 1700 with projections for the next century.

   Chapter 11 "Manifestations of Investor Psychology" is very powerful.




3. There was a movie which showed an approaching tidal wave. There was no noise because the wave was travelling faster than the speed of sound. This is the case of the oncoming financial tidal wave of disaster. One can hear the bullish rantings of a stream of advisors, nudging us into a sleeping wonderment of good things to come. The tidal wave is on its way. Prechter has pointed out the various items unfolding before our eyes. He was early in many of the prognostications, but they are surely falling into place. If you read the book, you will surely see how they are unfolding. Your financial health is at stake. The tech wreck was only the beginning. Read on, there is still time, but the book will be out of date in a couple of years.



4. I bought this book used about three years ago. Although I was skeptical of it's contents, since the title seemed dated, I picked it up because it was cheap. It was one of the best buys I've made.
   
   Although I did not read the entire book, the portions I did read (chapters 9-12 about investor psychology) were timeless and made the book well worth the buy. Those chapters are highly recommended reading for contrarians. I'll quote among my favorite lines: "They show that people view stocks as being less risky than treasury bills. Indeed, article after article refers to the "risk of missing gains" as being more important than the risk of loss. This is an optimism so extreme that it has not been seen in the West for nearly three centuries." (p154); "The public is always trading oriented in the early stages of a bull market, and "investment" oriented at the top. - One-Way Pockets 1917 (189); "No top-heavy market with public involvement fails in the end to punish the average investor for his gullibility." (190); "All investment is speculation, and there is no more risky speculation than one that is confidently viewed by a majority of portfolio managers and the public as an investment." (414).
   
   I gave four stars because Prechter's timing of the coming crisis was way off and his predictions sounded extreme, for example: chapter 21, page 431, "... secessionist movement will take place in many countries, including the US ...one or both current political parties will dissapear ...unemployment will reach 30%."
   
   Overall I highly recommend this book. Tidal Wave is easy to read and follow.



5. If you go to the list showing all of my reviews, you will see that I have read quite a few books about the stock market and trading in general. While I have encountered information that talked in generalities about the Elliott Wave Principle, I had never delved into it in much detail as I never felt the methodology was consistent. Having trudged my way through this book, I have come to the conclusion that either (1) I am too stupid to be able to understand and trade based on the EWP (an admittedly distinct possibility), or (2) I have never read so much after-the-fact 'curve fitting' in my life. If you are a student and believer in the Elliott Wave Principle, this will be like adding a second Bible to your collection. If, however, you don't already know and understand the EWP, and unless you are a genius, plan on spending years trying to understand the theory before you will be able to implement it into your trading system. Sorry, Mr. Prechter, but I just don't get it.