The Putnam Mathematical Competition
Schedule, problem sets, and registration link here
First
Saturday of December;
session A from 8-11am, session B from 1-4pm.
Lunch will be provided for contestants between 11am and 1pm.
IMPORTANT!
If your religious beliefs prevent you from taking the contest on a Saturday, you may take
the test after sundown the day before (we will have to ask for permission from the Contest
Directors, but they generally grant such requests, if submitted in a timely fashion). You will
have to make arrangements to stay under the supervision of a rabbi or clergyman from
8am on the day of the contest.
Problem-Solving Class (Math342)
Students
interested in taking the exam are greatly encouraged to register for the special problem-solving class, Math342.
Taking the class will involve mainly homework and board presentations,
and will be a fun way to connect to and work with
like-minded, mathematically inclined people, and learning problem-solving
skills in a more disciplined environment. For more information on this class,
click here.
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Each Monday from 6-8pm in Communications Building B006 (for 2023) we
will hold 2-hour long preparation sessions, in which we will solve and discuss Putnam
problems, etc. If you are interested in the contest but not registered for Math
342, you definitely should try and attend these Monday evening sessions.
The Putnam Competition has a very large student participation----over 4000
undergraduates, each year. The top 5 scorers receive first prize;
traditionally, this is achieved with around 90+ points out of the 120 possible.
Top 200 (which, given the number of participants, is quite a good ranking!) is
much easier to achieve: you only need about 40+ points, i.e., four problems
correctly solved and correctly written up. Top 100 is usually achieved with
five problems. Consider this: you get two three-hour sessions, each with six
problems to choose from, and all you need to do to achieve a really good
ranking is solve a couple of them during each session.
Faculty Members in
charge of the Putnam Preparation Sessions and Contest Administration:
Registration for Putnam competition:
Students should register
individually using this registration form (this link is unique to UW).