Any thoughts on "Introduction to Mathematical Statistics" by Hogg, Craig, and McKean?

[PieceOfPi]

Dear PF members,

I was looking for a textbook for my mathematical statistics course, and it turns out that Introduction to Mathematical Statics by Hogg, Craig, and McKean will be the book for the course. I've read some reviews on amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Mathematical-Statistics-Robert-Hogg/dp/0130085073), and it has some various comments like "It's a fairly good book" as well as "It's not a good introductory book for statistics!" So I was wondering if any of you have any comment on this book. I have never taken probability and statistics before (I learned it a little bit in high school, but that's just about it), but I have satisfied the prerequisite for the class (i.e. multivariable calculus and linear algebra).

Thanks

[PieceOfPi]

Maybe this isn't a very popular textbook?

[jasonRF]

PieceOfPi

Actually, I think this is a pretty popular text, or at least was in its earlier incarnations. I have only a minor familiarity with it, but it seems that regardless you have to get the book for your class, yes? I recall the book being at a reasonable level for someone with your background. I never really read the book - just picked it up off the shelf in the library and glanced through it, so I cannot say if it is good to learn from. Since you have not mentioned taking a probability class, I am guessing the first part of your course (if not the entire course) will concentrate on probability theory. If you need another book on probability theory to help, I would recommend "a first course on probability" by ross - an old edition can be bought used for little money.

Good luck!

[PieceOfPi]

Thanks for your reply, jasonRF

PieceOfPi
I have only a minor familiarity with it, but it seems that regardless you have to get the book for your class, yes?

Yes, this is for one of the stat course at my school. I also have an option to take another statistics course, which uses An Introduction to Mathematical Statistics and Its Applications (http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Mathematical-Statistics-Its-Applications/dp/0131867938/ref=dp_ob_title_bk) by Larsen. But the prerequisites of the courses that uses Larsen are only the first two quarters of calculus (i.e. differentiations and integrations), and while it might be a better introduction to probability and statistics, I'm afraid the course might be too easy. On the other hand, the course that uses Hogg requires linear algebra and multivariable calculus, and I think it covers more theory than applications. I don't know which is better, but I think it might be better to take the one with Hogg as long as I can handle it.

Since you have not mentioned taking a probability class, I am guessing the first part of your course (if not the entire course) will concentrate on probability theory. If you need another book on probability theory to help, I would recommend "a first course on probability" by ross - an old edition can be bought used for little money.

I think the first four chapters of Hogg deals with probability and distributions, and I assume the first quarter of this sequence will probably focus on probability. But I can see another textbook on probability might be better. For example, I've read the first few sections of Hogg (I checked it out from the library), and I feel like the text is covering this stuff pretty lightly (e.g. If I haven't taken combinatorics before, I'd probably be lost around permutations, combinations, and inclusion-exclusion formula, which is in section 1.3).