Best Statistics Text Book You've Used

[Govari]

Hey all,

 

I'm looking for a good refresher in statistics before I go to any of my graduate school interviews and was not a fan of either of the stats books I used during my years in undergrad (both of which were stats for behavioral sciences text books). What're your favorites, or which were most useful for really nailing down difficult concepts?

I'm considering getting Discovering Statistics Using R (http://www.amazon.com/Discovering-Statistics-Using-Andy-Field/dp/1446200469/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386492444&sr=8-1&keywords=learning+statistics+with+r), so I'd also like to hear any thoughts about that.

 

Thanks in advance!

[stats applicant]

Give Wassermann "all of statistics" a shot. Really nice book as a refresher. 

http://www.stat.cmu.edu/~larry/all-of-statistics/

[clurp]

Do grad interviews typically involve technical questions? I figured they were more about assessing fit. 

[cyberwulf]

Hey all,

 

I'm looking for a good refresher in statistics before I go to any of my graduate school interviews and was not a fan of either of the stats books I used during my years in undergrad (both of which were stats for behavioral sciences text books). What're your favorites, or which were most useful for really nailing down difficult concepts?

Do grad interviews typically involve technical questions? I figured they were more about assessing fit. 

 

I've never heard of an interview in a stat or biostat department asking technical questions; typically, the assumption is that they wouldn't even consider admitting you if they weren't confident you had the relevant technical ability or the capacity to pick it up on the fly. 

 

Many first-year courses in stat/biostat programs are taught out of Casella & Berger , so that may be a decent place to start if you're looking for a refresher and/or head start on what you'll be learning as a grad student.

[ParanoidAndroid]

Undergraduate Level

 

Mathematical Statistics with Applications by Wackerly et. al

 

Introduction to Mathematical Statistics by Hogg et. al

 

Probability and Statistics by Degroot and Schervish

 

Graduate Level

 

Statistical Inference by Casella and Berger

 

Theory of Statistics by Schervish

 

Mathematical Statistics by Shao

 

Wasserman's book is also great.