Don't blame me, the authors called it that in their preface!
Although this fine little self study guide uses chem as examples, the authors could have just as easily be describing "shocking of undergrad" experiments in psych, the migration of the great tufted flying lizard, or the distribution of bosons vs. the likelihood of nuclear war. In short, the book really is a GREAT little guide to ANOVA, t-tests, r-squared and all the applied stats you have forgotten long ago, in ANY field.
It is wonderful both pedagogically and as a reference. It begins, amazingly, WITH the glossary, and then points to the sections where the terms are further explained. Then, it gives FAQ's, and shows where to find more detailed answers. If you're getting the impression that these guys are reader friendly, you've got it!
Other really great reviews on this and other texts rightfully point out the 3 bears-- there are MANY texts on stats that are too big, too small, but not just right. What they sometimes miss is cost: a lot of those other big boys cost from $40 to $140+. This little beauty can be had for $9 used. Some of the formulas are grad level, but ALL of the explanations are advanced High School math level and certainly undergrad.
LOTs of charts, examples, questions with solutions and detailed discussions about what does and doesn't work in journal articles and reports out in the real juried world. These authors have a been there done that practicality that is rarely found in the too dry or too sparse world of data crunching.
Highly recommended as a refresher, helper, study guide, reference and most of all KEEPER to turn back to again and again to check on formulas, uses, meanings and best practices in disclosing and reporting on uncertainty while detailing your results and conclusions. Only point of disagreement with the authors: NOT FOR DUMMIES. They just meant they tried to make it understandable, intuitive and easy to grasp. Otherwise, grad students, teachers, etc. will find it enlightening and fun, especially in chem, but also in any other application of ANOVA-like crunching. BTW, VERY Excel friendly.
Speaking of, if you ARE in Chemistry, and don't mind $50 well spent for over 700 pages, you can't go wrong with Billo:
Excel for Chemists, with CD-ROM: A Comprehensive Guide
. It is the "next step" in applying all those formulas from Hibbert and Gooding in the present volume and is a great complement because Billo doesn't go into the theory and Hibbert doesn't go as much into Excel, including of course Excel 2010. Make SURE you get the 3rd edition if you do get Billo, it has extensive revisions. Billo does more than stats-- it also shows how Excel is used in labs for reactions, computations, etc. Must have for any chem library.
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