Statistics at Square One
Authors: T D V Swinscow and MJ Campbell
I happened to be chatting to a hospital consultant acquaintance of mine the other day and enquired as to whether he’d ever read Statistics at Square One. "Oh yes", he said but looked rather sheepish. "Actually", he admitted, "I didn’t manage to get past chapter four!" Which pretty well mirrors my own experience, I’m afraid. As someone who managed to scrape a Grade 3 in ‘O’ level maths and then dropped the subject, I found even the first few chapters hard going and then it all went completely over my head.
I’ve absolutely no doubt that those who are less mathematically challenged would sail through this comprehensive little book without difficulty, helped by the FAQ’s and exercises (answers to the latter at the end). However, I would take issue with the sleeve notes, which state that the book is an ideal introduction for the novice. The mathematics in chapters six and seven is surely at least of ‘A’ level standard, which is all a great pity because I was interested in finding out in elementary terms what a confidence interval is and how the T Tests worked.
I don’t know if it is indeed possible to simplify the subject. After trying to read this book, all I can tell you is - if I ever write a scientific paper, I’ll have to take the easy way out and employ a statistician to do the necessary!
| Publisher: | BMJ books
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| 10th Edition
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| ISBN: 0-7279-1552-5
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| Reviewer: | Dr Jeremy M Sager
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