Source: amazon
Author: Morris H. DeGroot, Mark J. Schervish
Hardcover: 912 pages
Publisher: Pearson; 4 edition (January 6, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0321500466
ISBN-13: 978-0321500465
Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 1.3 inches
Introduction:
The revision of this well-respected text presents a balanced approach of the classical and Bayesian methods and now includes a chapter on simulation (including Markov chain Monte Carlo and the Bootstrap), coverage of residual analysis in linear models, and many examples using real data. Calculus is assumed as a prerequisite, and a familiarity with the concepts and elementary properties of vectors and matrices is a plus.
Amazon Customer Reviews
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars New edition is awful, February 11, 2011
By Andy (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Probability and Statistics (4th Edition) (Hardcover)
I was looking for a solid text to self-study probability and statistics, something comparable to Gilbert Strang's take on Linear Algebra and on Calculus, but for probability and stats. I have studied it in college at the intro level, but wanted to refresh and deepen my knowledge to be well-prepared for some forays into more advanced topics. This book had great reviews and I figured I should buy it. Amazon warned me that there's a new edition coming up, so I decided to wait an purchase it. I was excited when the new, 4th ed, arrived in January. Then I started to read it. I couldn't. Not because I don't understand the math or concepts, no. Because the author constantly refers to theorem/example/equation X.Y.Z. Nobody speaks or teaches this way in real life. People write like that when they are writing a proof at a test. I could understand the justification if author was providing a world with a tricky, long and novel proof to a hard problem. But it's not that. It's just that author doesn't bother to write in a pedagogical way. This totally breaks the flow, it fogs the concepts, and it helps to completely forget what you have just read about.
What puzzles me even more is that I looked into second edition and it has NONE of these problems. It's a totally different book in style. I cannot attest to its quality cause I only glanced at it, but I can immediately tell that it doesn't have the problem that made reading the 4th edition impossible to me.
I would also be interested to learn how 3rd edition compares to 2nd and 4th. So if someone could comment on it, please, do.
I would also appreciate comments from other readers as of which textbook they would recommend. I'm looking for something conceptual and pedagogical, but not shallow. I don't need perfect proofs with all boundary conditions and small steps listed, neither I need a shallow run through important formulas per se. I want to understand the subject at good enough debt to easily read more advanced texts.