A first course in probability by Sheldon Ross VS Intro to the theory of statistics by MOOD

Squasher · 5/21/21

In my opinion, both these books seem to have a significant overlap, with MOOD's book providing a more in depth study.
Is this correct or do these 2 books serve different purposes?
And how do they compare to Statistical inference by Casella

Quasar Chunawala · 5/21/21

My two cents - you can co-solve, Introduction to Probability Theory and its applications by Feller volumes I and II, if you wish to solve some nice examples in probability theory. It deals with less measure theory, but nonethess, great problems on a wide range of topics - although you may have already used the text, since you studied math.

Squasher · 5/21/21

Thanks.. I'll check it out
Have you seen the probability/stats courses on the MIT site?

jarryds · 5/21/21

Let me say, I used a first course in probability by Sheldon Ross in undergrad. I seriously disliked the book. For being a FIRST course in probability, the book leaves out a lot of detailed explanation and context. Even the practice problems within the chapter lack any explanation of the methods or variables. Also, their variable usage is all over the place. They will swap variables without explanation, leaving the reader confused. I had to use a lot of outside information to learn probability. The concepts discussed in this book are not difficult, but are hard to grasp due to its teaching approach.

Squasher · 5/21/21

jarryds said:
Let me say, I used a first course in probability by Sheldon Ross in undergrad. I seriously disliked the book. For being a FIRST course in probability, the book leaves out a lot of detailed explanation and context. Even the practice problems within the chapter lack any explanation of the methods or variables. Also, their variable usage is all over the place. They will swap variables without explanation, leaving the reader confused. I had to use a lot of outside information to learn probability. The concepts discussed in this book are not difficult, but are hard to grasp due to its teaching approach.

Thanks for the feedback!

jarryds · 5/21/21

Miheer Prakash said:
Thanks for the feedback!

There is an online PDF of the book for free, so check it out and see what you think. Maybe others thought the book was great and I am an outlier.

Quasar Chunawala · 5/21/21

Miheer Prakash said:
Thanks.. I'll check it out
Have you seen the probability/stats courses on the MIT site?

I haven't. The one I liked when I first learnt basic probability was Stats 110 - by Harvard alongside Joe Blitzstein's book.

bigbadwolf · 5/21/21

jarryds said:
There is an online PDF of the book for free, so check it out and see what you think. Maybe others thought the book was great and I am an outlier.

I agree with you. The book is garbage. There are so many other more attractive options available.

aleewdewx · 6/10/21

jarryds said:
Let me say, I used a first course in probability by Sheldon Ross in undergrad. I seriously disliked the book. For being a FIRST course in probability, the book leaves out a lot of detailed explanation and context. Even the practice problems within the chapter lack any explanation of the methods or variables. Also, their variable usage is all over the place. They will swap variables without explanation, leaving the reader confused. I had to use a lot of outside information to learn probability. The concepts discussed in this book are not difficult, but are hard to grasp due to its teaching approach.

which book would you suggest instead ?

Skellam · 6/13/21

Not really talked about much, but the book by Port, Hoel, and Stone is a good probability book.