Managerial Statistics

Rating:
Summary: Not A Good Purchase For Me
Review: I gave this book two stars because I liked the fact that it uses Excel rather than SPSS, since more professionals own that software. They handle some topics really well, but others,... Let's just say that when they were good, they were good, but when they were bad (skimpy in explaining), they were really bad. The authors clearly knew how to use Excel to handle statistics with a lot of "nifty, real-world experiences". But, often, the examples do not map to the problems we "mere mortals" should attempt to answer or even map to the problems in the textbook. Sometimes it was as if one person wrote the example, but someone else did the problems at the end of the chapter. Your best bet is to hope that your professor maps to the problems, because the authors sure didn't. In addition, I'm somewhat old fashioned. I liked the answers to odd-numbered questions in the back of the textbook. The authors did not include them. I used to get a lot of extra study time, "plowing" through every type of question I could to see if I was understanding the concept. No such luck, here. You can answer questions until you're blue. There are no answers to double check. (There goes any attempt to be independent and do extra work) (And if I'm forced to be really ticky,...the print is small and the text is congested,...if you've got older eyes like mine, buy a magnifying glass or better yet, pick a better book. I understand the authors may have others that work much better.

Rating:
Summary: Learn to use Excel
Review: Using Excel is a heavy focus of this textbook. It would be excellent for MBA students who are quantitatively oriented, but maybe a bit advanced for undergraduates.

It is very practical in learning the basics and learning how to produce practical tables and charts in Excel. The examples are very good at teaching the steps involved.

This probably isn't a good book for self study, unless you are specifically looking to sharpen Excel skills.

I teach MBA statistics at a business school, and use this text for one course. The benefit is being able to do useful analysis and exhibits as a result of taking the course. I also have an MBA myself and worked in industry many years before going back to school for a phd degree and becoming a teacher.