Predictive Analytics For Dummies (For Dummies Series) 1st Edition

If you are new to predictive analytics this is a good book to start with. Well and clearly written, with minimal coding.

I think Predictive Analytics is an incredibly important subject in our now increasingly data-driven society, and I am really glad I bought this book.I bought the book to help me pass my Predictive Analytics class in college. Besides helping me get an A- on my final it helped me understand how I can actually apply Predictive Analytics to my life, in a business, or honestly anything.I'm a comp sci major and more often than not my teachers don't explain things clearly. This book explains the ideas of Predictive Analytics in ways I can easily understand and then apply to the specifics of what my teacher is looking for. I think it works so well because it was written for an audience with little to no experience in computer science, so it takes the time to break down concepts to their bare bones. I found my teacher has a habit of pretending we are PhD students with years of experience and skips the fundamental ideas that I need to know. But it also provides the detailed technical depth I need to have for a technical understanding of the topic. And there is a lot of advanced stuff in there; it’s just explained in ways that are easy to understand.The book also includes a remarkable amount of information on how Predictive Analytics is applied in real life, which is something I find essential for me to stay interested in a subject. It has a lot of advice for businesses, and I think it was written for businesses to understand how to use it to increase sales. I think that is ultimately one of the biggest use of Predictive Analytics, and if I decide to apply for a job in the field, I think all of the business use knowledge will be a plus.

Usually not a fan of Dummies series, however I found this book helpful. It starts nice and easy explaining basic concepts of data, data mining, statistics, data analysis and its business application. Then it goes into further detail becoming more technical and even offers code samples. It has instructions on installing Python, machine learning module accompanied by screen shots which I think are not necessary with operating systems updating and changing things up so quickly. But it gets the job done, guiding beginner through the processes.Building a predictive model was new to me and I think I got the concept although still need hands on experience and dealing with it in the real world to actually fully understand.Overall good book, great start for someone looking to join the industry and exploring various fields. Non-technical business professionals can definitely learn enough to be up to speed on the subject, and its effects on business.

Having very minor previous knowledge of predictive analytics, I knew a For Dummies type of book was the best route for a beginner like myself. The understandable and effective text of the book enabled me to quickly learn that what you do, what you buy, what sites you go on reflects your behaviors that are stored and used for analysis and predictions of future behaviors. A small improvement in ability to predict how people will behave can produce results from maximizing the profit from a business standpoint to areas such as social movements like detecting emerging healthcare issues. There are many questions that come to mind when reading this book, but as you read on they are all very effectively answered by the author.Predictive analytics are embedded in everyone’s daily lives and can have a considerable effect on their future actions. This book provided a plethora of examples that can be related to, so that even a total beginner like myself has some insight into this seemingly complex subject.I highly recommend this book for anyone involved in marketing because this book will provide further insight to an invaluable tool for any type of operation. This is why I particularly liked the Part III: Developing a Roadmap. It is one thing to read definitions and examples that give you a grasp on the concept, but this part is so significant because it gives you the tools to apply predictive analytics in your own life. It gives you instructions that anyone can use in order to try to better their understanding or to apply predictive analytics in their own company/job.Anyone interested in the world of analytics will find this fascinating. Once again the For Dummies made an easy to read book with real life applications!

Ordered the book about a month ago and finally got down to reading it over the past few days. Very helpful and informative. Dr. Bari does a great job of connecting the relatively complex field of predictive analytics with real life situations, showing that we all use predictive strategies on a daily basis without realizing it, whether we are trying to avoid traffic on the way to work or attempting to predict how the stock market will behave over any given week. This allows even those who are new to the field of computer science to understand the bigger picture. He also makes a point of showing how well-known corporations make use of predictive analytics in their products, such as Facebook and its "people you may know" feature and even Amazon with its product tagging system.The chapter on applying models to data was particularly interesting, as Bari explains how data can be modeled so that predictive algorithms can be run on it. He explains the differences between "predictive" models, "classification" models, "clustering" models, "decision-oriented" models, and "associative" models, giving examples of each. He also includes case studies on ways big data is currently being used to model and predict real life situations, writing about how tweets can be used to predict everything from the stock market to political race outcomes to earthquakes.Highly recommend this book. Information technology and computer science are the way of the future, and predictive analytics will certainly play a larger and larger role in these fields as time goes on.

El libro fue muy útil para un proyecto y un diplomado en el que participe

Love it I am still reading it

It's wonderful book to understand basics about data science and predictive analytics. This is the first book i read and i give full credit to this book, which inspired me enough to become a data Scientist.

Obwohl das Buch einige Fehler enthält, ist es trotzdem sehr empfehlenswert! Bspw sollte jedem klar sein, dass 60%*60%*20% natürlich nicht 72% ergibt. Abgesehen davon bietet das Buch eine schöne Zusammenfassung über die verschiedenen Methoden der predictive Analysis und deren Anwendungen. Zur predictive Analysis mittels Regression stellt der Author sogar ein Praxisbsp mit R. Verbesserungsvorschläge gibt es immer, aber im Vergleich dazu, was der Markt sonst so bietet, top!

Unfortunately, I did not find this book useful. When I first looked at the table of contents, I was excited about the potential content of the book, but I was disappointed after reading it. The algorithms and models commonly used in predictive analytics are not explained well in this book. For me, there are better books that cover this topic in a clearer, more readable, and enjoyable manner. I would highly recommend these two alternatives: Data Smart by John Foreman and Machine Learning with R by Brett Lantz.