Mathematical Statistics with Applications

by Dennis D. Wackerly, William Mendenhall, Richard L. Scheaffer

This is the most widely used mathematical statistics text at the top 200 universities in the United States. Premiere authors Dennis Wackerly, William Mendenhall, and Richard L. Scheaffer present a solid undergraduate foundation in statistical theory while conveying the relevance and importance of the theory in solving practical problems in the real world. The authors' use of practical applications and excellent exercises helps students discover the nature of statistics and understand its essential role in scientific research.

Genres: Mathematics, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Reference, School, Economics, Academia

853 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Abe · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is okay as far as content goes, but many of the solutions it gives are actually incorrect.

My complaint about mathematical textbooks is that they exploit college students' inelastic demand for education goods and charge a fortune for every update of the book — compounding this problem is that when they release a "new edition" the content itself stays exactly the same and only the practice problems are changed. If you can't do the homework with a previous edition, you have to buy the newest edition. You're stuck.

At the very least if you are planning to release a new edition of a book in which you only change the practice problems, at least update all the answers. Please.

[Gevorg · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best introductory mathematical statistics books I have worked through. Clear, concise and elucidating writing, with tons of examples to digest the material. Although by no means damaging the conceptual clarity and quality, at times the clear and easy-to-understand writing is at the expense of mathematical rigour, but the authors rightly mention every such case. Very much recommended to anyone who wants to learn and thoroughly understand statistical concepts.

[Thomas John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I orginally used this textbook for an undergraduate course in Probability and Statistics. This text came in very handy in graduate school when taking a course in applied probability models in engineering. It was heplful to reference this text due to the mathematically rigorus coverage (proofs) of many theorems we covered in graduate school, when from an engineering perspective, this is often skipped.

[Dan Seol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good overall however it spends too little time to explain 6.7 while using materials from that section a lot. It might be better to be more explicit on some properties and theorems to use instead of implictly make students use them via exercises from previous sections.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given an earlier edition of this textbook by a friend and decided to work through it chapter-by-chapter in preparation for my first semester of graduate-level econometrics. Overall, it was a good undergrad-level book.

The authors have a clear prose that avoids some of the jargon typically found in statistics (I was shocked to not see 'homoskedasticity' or 'heteroskedasticity' used in either the chapters on linear regressions or ANOVA, even though the concepts are stated), and their examples are practical-minded. Additionally, their chapters on nonparametric and Bayesian statistics, though brief, help the reader appreciate the diversity of methods and perspectives within the discipline.

Having taken a business-orientated probability and statistics class, a two-semester course in calculus, and linear algebra, this text was fairly straightforward. I managed to learn a few new things in addition to developing a greater respect for probability theory, estimation methods (including maximum likelihood and Rao-Blackwellization), and experiment design.

My only criticisms are that I found many typos throughout, and the authors missed an opportunity to integrate lessons in a programming language (R, Stata, SPSS, etc.) into the material for those who want to get their hands dirty with some data analysis of their own. I'm sure later editions have probably rectified the first issue, and I would hope they've seriously considered the second.

[Elise Hedlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

On today's installment of Elise rates her college textbooks, we have the Introduction to Mathematical Statistics textbook!!

My first gripe with this class is that no 4000-level class should still be labelled "Intro," but that is solely a class problem and has nothing to do with the textbook. The textbook, in fact, was quite instrumental in getting me through this class. I liked that there were some real-world problems and that each chapter had very clear formulas and proofs. I still spent a fair amount of time being confused, but much less so than I would have on my own, so a win is a win!

Also, I think Wackerly is an awesome name.

[Lecture Freed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has many good exercises but lacks a true theoretical view. My friends have pointed out some inconsistencies in a few of the proofs. Don't expect much from the answer provided in the back of the book.

[Haresh Bhardwaj · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best introduction to statistics, by a huge margin. For all those struggling to understand probability, there cannot be a better book than this.

[Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first statistics book, and although it probably won't be the last I am forced to study, I can easily say it will be the best. This is one of the best texts I've ever had through undergrad in Aerospace Engineering to a grad degree in Environmental Policy and Management and now another grad in Operations Research. Well organized, plenty of examples, great practice problems and everything you've ever wanted to know about the basics of discrete, continuous, and multivariate probability distributions. If you need a reference book for statistics, get this one and keep it.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Used in a two-semester intro probability and statistics course. Great textbook. Clear examples, and lots of practice problems and solutions. I taught myself a lot straight from the book during my statistics classes.

[Oliver · Rating 2 out of 5]

nope

[Jette Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a popular text for many professors. I highly recommend purchasing the online content as well to supplement the problems.

[Frank Palardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Textbook

[Insani Putri Edi Sailar · Rating 5 out of 5]

good statistics book