We understand you probably did not sign up voluntarily to study statistics. Many of you are taking this course because it is required as part of your major or minor concentration. Others of you are taking it because your parents and counselors have suggested a course in statistics to give you a competitive edge in a difficult job market. Many of you expect to go to graduate school and are aware of the central importance of analysis of empirical data in that milieu. Just as the reasons for taking this course will vary, so too your backgrounds and prior mathematical experience will vary.

We know this because we have taught statistics to hundreds of students over many, many years. And we have learned some valuable and surprising things from our students during that time. For example, we have learned that some students grasp the most complex statistical concepts immediately while others have to struggle to master each and every one. And we have been struck by the variety of techniques students find useful and important to them in mastering the material. Their reports vary tremendously. One person will swear by a technique and five others will find it useless.

Our conclusion has been that no one pedagogical technique is successful for all students. Some students have the ability to read an equation and immediately understand its workings. Others have better success when they see an illustration of the concept.Some students need verbal descriptions and others find the worked out problems, margin definitions, and end of chapter exercises to be the most useful. It is remarkable, the very same formula or illustration that provides instant insight for one individual can be of little or no value to others. What have these observations meant, in practical terms, for us as authors? We have concluded that it is not enough to provide one explanation, one study technique. We have worked hard to provide you with a range of instructional devices that students have told us over the years have worked for them.

We have included techniques useful for learning the material, for reviewing it at exam time and for mastering the calculations required by the exercises. For example, we have included margin definitions to highlight important concepts as they are presented and listings of important terms at the end of each chapter. These may be used to guide your learning and to highlight important concepts when you review for exams. The end of chapter exercises provide practice in how to perform the calculations as well as some questions that will force you to think about how a statistical test works, why it works that way, and the some of the precautions to take when using the test. By the way, the answers to the odd numbered exercises are presented in the appendix. These answers won't tell you exactly how to do the calculations but they will serve as a warning if the answer you come up with differs from the one in the text.

The understanding you develop from your reading and the exercises are reinforced in summary tables in the body of the text. We have introduced these summary tables as a way for you to make your study time more efficient. In one table you can view and outline of the major concepts, their characteristics, when they are used, and cautions in their use. We have provided frequently used formula and notation in the end pages. We have included as well a statistical formula guide to give you clear and easy access to review of commonly used statistical procedures. This section will be of particular value to you when you study for exams and when you finish this course and are called upon in subsequent courses to review a particular statistical technique.

The Statistics Primer 
Including information on various types of statistics, a statistics glossary, and a practice quiz

SPSS Online Guide  NEW!
A introductory resource for students and professors using the SPSS software; a quick, non-linear approach to 
understanding this important software package and making the most of it in and out of class. 

Online Resources
A web links bank for students to browse; many excellent web sites full of information for students taking statistics courses

There are also several printed supplements offered by McGraw-Hill to aid student learning in statistics courses

Return to the Main Menu

If you have a question or a problem about a specific book or product, please fill out our Product Feedback Form.
For further information about this site contact mhhe_webmaster@mcgraw-hill.com
or let us know what you think by filling out our Site Survey.