Does this exist?

[Teachin'Mine]

I've been doing some googling looking for an AP statistics text which teaches the lessons in the text, and has review throughout - in other words something which looks like a Saxon text. Is there one like that? I'm just doing some preliminary searching for next year.

[Teachin'Mine]

 

I'm searching in old threads here, but the only thing I've found so far is the text The Practice of Statistics 3rd edition. It sounds like it covers what's needed for the AP test, but in reading reviews, the layout isn't great, and the solutions are lacking. Because she'd be doing this on her own, I'm looking for a text which teaches well, has lots of problems to solve, and a good answer key and solutions manual. I know - that's a tall order. :tongue_smilie:

 

Any feedback on the above mentioned text or suggestions of any kind would be greatly appreciated. :)

 

 

[Luckymama]

I'll take a look at ds's AP Stats book later today and report back :)

[Teachin'Mine]

Thank you Luckymama!!! :)

[flyingiguana]

While trying to find a copy of The Practice of Statistics, I ran into this instead:

http://bcs.whfreeman.com/ips5e/

 

It's Introduction to the Practice of Statistics (I'll call it IPS), which has different authors.

 

I now have a copy of IPS (the 3rd edition). There are way more problems than we will ever get to doing. The odds have answers in the back. I see from the Freeman website that there is an instructor's solution manual (at least to the 5th edition), but I haven't seen or used it.

 

IPS seems ok. There are some mysterious descriptions of things in the text, but that's pretty much what you'll get with any textbook. I did look over the 4th edition and it seemed fairly similar to the 3rd, but with different examples. I'd imagine you could pick up a 3rd or 4th edition cheap as they're now onto the 5th edition, but I don't know if the solutions manual would be available for those.

 

I still haven't seen a copy of the book you mentioned (PS, I guess it could be called). I know it seems to be what everyone is looking for (because one online course is using it?), but I looked at several other stat books and they all looked pretty similar to me, so I decided not to worry about getting the "right" one.

 

The AP site didn't seem to mention any stat books in particular as they do for many of their other tests.

[Teachin'Mine]

Thank you Flyingiguana!!! :) (Gotta admit that's one sentence I never thought I'd be writing!) :lol: I love your username! :D

 

I brought up these reviews on Amazon:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Practice-Statistics-CD-Rom-David/product-reviews/0716735024/ref=dp_db_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

 

It sounds like it might be great. Moore is the same author for both of the statistics texts. It sounds like this one has more problems to work and is written for the student to understand on their own. I'd be interested in hearing how students who used this text did on the AP.

 

It's frustrating that the AP statistics doesn't list any recommended texts. You're probably right that it's not critical which one is used. Yes, I've seen a few courses which do use the other text, the PS, so that probably does make it more in demand. I had considered having her do the class online, but honestly she really prefers to learn from the book and the classes take up a lot of time and generally just teach what's in the book anyway. The other concern is the cost for these classes and having to be at the computer each day at a certain time. :tongue_smilie: I haven't ruled this option out though.

 

One of the review on the book you referenced is that it's just a little more advanced than the Basic PS book. All three of these have Moore as an author, so I'm wondering if the Basic is just that, then a step up iw the Intro, and the regular PS is the more advanced of the grouping. I'm wondering if the Intro is sufficient for the AP testing material or if the other is needed. I noticed that the latter includes instruction on using the TI graphing calculators. I'm imagining that these are helpful for the test? I also noticed that the Intro book is said to be light on the math. If they're referring to calculus, I would consider that a plus, but if they're referring to math that's needed for the test then that's not a good thing.

Edited October 4, 2010 by Teachin'Mine

[Kathy in Richmond]

The College Board text recommendations for AP statistics are here, starting on page 228 of the pdf. Both of the texts you're discussing are on the list, btw. I don't think you could go wrong with either one.

 

I've had two kids do AP Stats successfully. My son preferred self-study, so he used the PS text on his own. On the other hand, my daughter enjoyed the PA Homeschooler online class (same text). Same results, just different learning styles. :)

 

PA Homeschooler classes are asynchronous. You don't have to be on the computer at a set time every day or even every week. The assignments are handled through message boards which the student accesses at his or her convenience. Most of the actual work is done off-line. We traveled a lot the year my dd did AP stats with them, and the laptop came with us on the road. She was able to get her assignments done easily on her own schedule.

 

One positive that I could see with the online class was that my daughter enjoyed the occasional class project work. Having a group of kids is a lot of fun for gathering and analyzing data, though this was just a small part of the course. Even more, she enjoyed the interaction with the other students, sharing and learning from others' solutions, etc.

 

I did the whole course alongside my son when he self-studied. I found PS to be understandable and sufficient. We didn't buy any extra teacher helps, so I can't comment on those, though I have a friend who did purchase the whole teacher's kit through Freeman. We found that the text had way more practice problems than anyone could possibly need; we just chose problems that had solutions in the back of the book so that we could check our work.

 

The only additional helps we purchased for my son were a couple of AP review books from Barnes and Noble. He finished the text during the fall semester and used the review books occasionally in the intervening months to prepare for the AP exam in May.

 

I've never seen IPS, but PS does have plenty of TI calculator helps. I'm fine on the math, but doing stats on the calculator was new to us both. The text has special sections that explicitly describe all the needed calculator procedures.

 

As for the math requirement, PS has nothing further than algebra two level math. AP statistics is not calculus-based.

~Kathy

[Teachin'Mine]

Kathy thank you!!!

 

I was curious about calculator use on the AP test and here's what they say:

 

Calculator Policy

 

 

Each student is expected to bring to the exam a graphing calculator with statistical capabilities. The computational capabilities should include standard statistical univariate and bivariate summaries, through linear regression. The graphical capabilities should include common univariate and bivariate displays such as histograms, boxplots, and scatterplots.

 

 

• You can bring two calculators to the exam.
  
• The calculator memory will not be cleared but you may only use the memory to store programs, not notes.
  
• For the exam, you're not allowed to access any information in your graphing calculators or elsewhere if it's not directly related to upgrading the statistical functionality of older graphing calculators to make them comparable to statistical features found on newer models. The only acceptable upgrades are those that improve the computational functionalities and/or graphical functionalities for data you key into the calculator while taking the examination. Unacceptable enhancements include, but aren't limited to, keying or scanning text or response templates into the calculator.
  
• During the exam, you can't use minicomputers, pocket organizers, electronic writing pads, or calculators with QWERTY (i.e., typewriter) keyboards.
  

 

 

So the graphing calculator is essential. It may be that this is taught in the Intro text, or it may be that this was specifically added to the PS book.

 

Thank you for sharing the experiences of both your children. It really helps to know what each was like and the benefits. That's good to know that there were enough practice problems. That's the problem with reviews - you don't know which ones are genuine, and which ones are "reviewing" with the hopes of steering buyers elsewhere. :tongue_smilie: The review was so negative that I'm assuming it's the later. That reviewer also mentioned that there were lots of errors in the solutions manual.

 

Thank you for providing the link for the texts. I didn't realize that was included in the download. :)

[Kathy in Richmond]

Glad to help!

 

Yes, you MUST know the TI calculator procedures inside & out to be able to get through the exam questions in a reasonable amount of time. My copy of the PS text is 2nd Edition, and it has specific step-by-step calculator helps for both TI-83 and TI-89 models. I'm not entirely sure about newer editions.

 

Kathy

[Teachin'Mine]

I read about the different textbooks in the link you gave - wow great info!

 

I had it wrong. The regular PS is geared towards high school students, whereas the Intro PS is for a college course as is the Basic one.

 

It's sounding like the regular PS is the way to go, but there were others mentioned that sounded good as well. None had the term "Saxon-like" in the description. :tongue_smilie::lol:

[flyingiguana]

We've found that using a good prep book (or several) for a few months before any AP test is of more help in learning the peculiarities of the AP test than choosing the "right" textbook.

 

A textbook author is going to write what he/she thinks is useful and appropriate, without regard to the idiosyncrasies of the AP test. When I'm choosing a text for an AP test, I just pick one that looks reasonably good and don't even worry about whether it's in sync with AP. My kids learn the material from the text, then get a lot of prep books to do the actual final studying.

 

I think the AP Stat test tends to be geared toward covering the sort of class a nonmajor would take. In other words, there won't be anything beyond algebra and basic probability, and the probability will be taught in the course so you don't need it beforehand. (So linear algebra probably won't be needed either.) But if I'm wrong about this, let us all know.:001_smile:

[Teachin'Mine]

Kathy thank you for the calculator info. :)

 

Flyingiguana that sounds like a good way to go. I've never taught to tests before and, like you said, the textbook authors aren't doing that either. Prepping with the test prep books sounds like a great idea. :)