Business Analytics: Data Analysis & Decision Making (MindTap Course List)

Very good quality book.

Gives solid information

This book came quickly and was exactly as it was described.

From what I have researched, this book is more for the data analyst and not the business analyst. The only reason I gave this 2 stars, is because it provides some useful information, like excel functions. Another of the features I found helpful was the summary of key terms in the back when, except the page numbers listed aren't even the page numbers that the chapter is on. (Ex. Ch 2 covers pages 38-83, the key terms are listed on pages 22-63). The conceptual questions, are the dry, many start of with "Suppose you want to do....". Maybe it's time to add another contributing author to this textbook, and probably one that's not from Indiana University.

This is a poorly written book. I recommend every teach to STAY AWAY from it if you are choosing a text book. Here's a short list of my experience: 1. The author tries to teach students Microsoft EXCEL by stating steps in a paragraph instead of bullet points. It makes following each step extremely difficult. 2. The author/editor is careless in proofreading. Terminology index at the end of each chapter is completely wrong. Readers are not able to find the content using provided page number. 3. Mindtap experience is terrible. Student have to guess how many digits needs to be used for a question. It could be 15, 15.23, or 15.22667. Answer format is defined 90% of the time. You will have to spend several hours guessing which format should be used the rest 10%.

Just run, if you're starting a class with this as your primary instrument of learning and combine it with the SAM exercises in Cengage, you'll spend 2-4x the time on the course that your should, and most of the time is spent in figuring out in what kind of pedantic way they need the answer. For example, lost 7% on an assignment (no points to spare in a grad program) because my Vlookup included the table labels...its a Vlookup, its for a range.

Pros: (1) Engagingly written book, which invites the reader to interact by answering problem questions (2) Amazon delivery/returns is very helpful Cons: (1) "invalid access code" is a frequent problem with Cengage publications according to the internet - and problem questions in this textbook cannot be answered without downloading xlsx files using the access code. (2) Cengage technical support seem unable to help individual students - they pass on emails to other departments (who also cannot help). In summary: This textbook is probably more suitable if you're learning with an institution that will deal directly with Cengage on your behalf.