Head First Statistics: A Brain-Friendly Guide

Head First Statistics is an outstanding introduction to statistics for those who need a good nuts-and-bolts guide that explains what the basic statistical operations are, how to use them, and-- most importantly-- where they should be used. It would also be very useful to those who were left dazed and confused by an earlier encounter with a college stats course. This is because it differs so much from most textbooks and reviews guides. In fact, it's actually interesting to read, and the exercises are fun to do. (I know how unlikely that sounds, but it's true!) The greatest strength of this book is the progressive way it builds understanding by clearly explaining exactly what each statistical function means, what the results of each function shows about the data, and when it should-- and shouldn't-- be applied. By the end, anyone who reads carefully and does the exercises will have a pretty firm grip on the essentials of statistical analysis. The book is unusual in its concept and design, too. The concepts are served up in easily digestible bites with lots of graphics, useful sidebars containing supplemental information, and exercises based on practical, real-world cases. No math beyond basic algebra is necessary for doing any of the exercises in the book. Finally, the tone is light and conversational, but it isn't at all condescending or cutsie. This most certainly is not an advanced textbook or a comprehensive reference manual. However, for anyone who needs an introductory text or a review for a stats exam, this is the book to get. I recommend it most highly.

Great easy to understand book.

I bought this book to help me out in my undergrad Statistics course. The course was effectively broken up into two parts: probability and actual statistical analysis. This book was really only good for the former. In terms of content, layout and overall approach, it follows the solid and engaging format of the "Head First" series. That is, it teaches you without you feeling like you're being taught at. The examples are sometimes funny, but mostly real world. For example, what's the best place to practice your knowledge of probability? A casino, of course. The author is really informal so you don't get that stuffy text-book approach (and believe me, my text book is horrible). One of my favorite things about this book was that it teaches with a lot of graphics and diagrams which help make the information stick. So for discrete probability, this book is great. There are also things like "Fire-side chats," and "5-minute mysteries" that make it enjoyable to read because the approach feels so natural but is something you'd never get in a classroom. Now on to the downsides. The book assumes you don't have very much prerequisite knowledge, which is great sometimes because then it slows down and helps you to really grasp the concepts. On the other hand, sometimes it really assumes you know too little. For example: you don't know calculus. You can't do real statistics without calculus, but the book assumes you don't know any so it leaves it out completely. Therefore, continuous probability is limited to uniform distributions that only require a little geometry. So for in depth statistics that requires finding maximum probabilities, cumulative information and the like, I'd say find something else. However, for a thorough and well thought-out introduction to discrete probabilities, this is your choice.

Lets face it, statistics look boring,sound boring, feels boring and tastes boring (if it could be eaten), until this book came along. I have not completed reading it yet but I can say this book really does a good job making sense of what statistics are for, beside snoring. Its fun to read and very practical. The big errors that traditional statistics book make is that they only talk about strict definitions, so what?. Too much mathematical symbols and I get dizzy. Not in this one. This book provide real life examples of how to use statistics in the real world. The examples are pretty simple and easy to understand. I love this kind of book where it's main purpose is to teach and it's not an intellectual display of the author. Being intellectual and being practical most of the time don't match and the student suffers. This book is a definite keeper for my collection of outstanding books.

This is a book I wish I had when I was learning statistics back in high school and college. Quite apart from the storytelling style (probably a feature of all Head First books) that is used to introduce concepts, this is the first book I have seen that derives Bayes theorem from first principles. The coverage is quite broad, it starts with descriptive statistics (mean, mode, median, standard deviation, etc), then probability, then onto probability distributions (Binomial, Poisson, Normal) and inferential statistics (correlation, regression, null hypothesis testing, etc). I found the coverage of probability and probability distributions particularly impressive, far better than other books I've read. I bought the book to brush up on my statistics for some work-related problems (computer programmer with an interest in machine learning by profession), and having gone through this book end-to-end in about 3 weeks of 1-2 hour blocks per day, I think this is money extremely well-spent.

Head First Statistics continues the fine tradition of the Head First series (the Java I learned from Head First has helped support our family well over the years, so this isn't just empty theorizing). Head First is pretty painless learning, too - I have enjoyed each subject I have learned through the Head First series, to the point if I need to learn something new, I first try to find a Head First book! My wife (a teacher) says the series is pedagogically correct too in how it hits your brain in multiple ways, helping your new knowledge to lock into your brain.

I’m not good with grasping stat concepts intuitively. This book helped a lot with lots of examples. Could be better if it had more difficult exercises. Advanced enough to get data scientists through their day.

This is my third statistics book. I am taking statistics in college. I failed statistics once and thought I would never, ever pass it or let alone understand it. I went to my local book store and went through book after book, after book and finally decided on this one. I cannot believe I am actually learning statistics. I was so confused and lost that my professor did not even want to bother with me. Anyway, I am not going to ramble on....but this is one hell of a book to learn statistics with. In my opinion it is much better than "Statistics for Dummies" and "Statistics for the Utterly Confused" (I own them as well). If this book can teach me statistics, it can teach anyone statistics.