Stat textbook recommendations?
On Jan 23, 2009, at 11:23 AM, Peter Dalgaard wrote:
Re. ISwR, you might want to take notice that it was originally written for a course that used Altman's "Practical Statistics for Medical Research". It is, however, a bit wordy for some and glosses rather too quickly over the math. Another popular item for ambitious beginners is Kirkwood and Sterne: Essential Medical Statistics. Their notation is a bit maddening (for teachers anyway) but they do cover a lot of ground without digging too deeply into the math. If you want more math, beware that what is good, strongly depends on your prerequisites. Linear model theory, e.g., gets much easier with matrix calculus and nearly trivial if you know about abstract linear algebra and projections in N dimensional vector spaces. For relatively basic levels, look at booke that are popular for first courses in Engineering: Devore, Johnson+Miller+Freund, and probably more.
Hello Peter, Thank you for the recommendations; I'll be sure to look into them. As you mention, the math level involved in some areas may well be beyond my current education... I've been a bit stymied by the online class system here not offering anything beyond the typical Math 105 'math for non-science majors' courses designed to meet the bare minimum obligatory 5 credit requirement for a degree. Chris mentioned some more extensive stat course available elsewhere online; I may have to start searching for some better general math courses as well. Thanks, Monte