William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition
The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is a highly challenging, proof-oriented mathematics competition for undergraduate students in North America.
Top scoring students on the Putnam exam are named Putnam Fellows.
Contents
The Competition
The Putnam Exam is a 6 hour undergraduate exam usually held the first Saturday in December. The test consists of two 3 hour sessions of six problems each with 2-hour lunch break between them. The problems are proof oriented and written in roughly the same style as high school Olympiads are, although they include more advanced mathematics. Each problem is graded on a scale of 1 to 10, with significant partial credit rarely being given. The top five scorers (or more if there are ties) on the exam are named "Putnam Fellows."
Each school may have as many students as are interested sit for the exam, but three students must before the contest to be the official school Putnam team. The teams are ranked in the same way that cross country scoring is done- each team's score is determined by adding the ranks (not the scores) of the three students on the team, and the team with the lowest point total wins. For example, a school whose team members placed 1st, 2nd and 20th would place lower than a school whose team members placed 6th, 7th and 8th. The fact that the team members need to be chosen in advance regularly leads to schools selecting the wrong team. For example, at least three of the six 2007 Putnam fellows were not members of their school team: AoPS member Arnav Tripathy of Harvard, Qingchun Ren of MIT, and Xuancheng Shao, also of MIT. In some cases this has led to a team placing lower than they would have had they chosen the three team members who went on to score the highest.
A person may take the Putnam Exam a maximum of four times. While this usually corresponds with the 4 years of the typical undergraduate experience, Gabriel Carroll took the exam as a senior in high school and was named a Putnam fellow for the first of four times.
Placings and Prizes
The prizes are as follows:
Individuals
- Putnam fellows
- <dollar/>2,500
- The next top ten individuals
- <dollar/>1,000
- Next Ten Individuals
- <dollar/>250
Teams
- First Place team
- Team members recieve $1,000
- School recieves $25,000
- Second Place Team
- Team members recieve 800
- School recieves $20,000
- Third Place Team
- Team members recieve $600
- School recieves $15,000
- Fourth Place Team
- Team members recieves $400
- School recieves $10,000
- Fifth Place Team
- Team members recieve $200
- School recieves $5,000
- Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize- The Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize will be awarded periodically to a woman whose performance in the competition has been deemed particularly meritorious. This prize would be in addition to any other prize she might otherwise win. Women contestants, to be eligible for this prize, must specify their gender.
- $1,000
Problem Books
- 1938-1964 -- A good book for students just learning to solve Putnam Problems.
- 1965-1984
- 1985-2000 by Kiran Kedlaya, Bjorn Poonen, and Ravi Vakil. The three authors are among the most successful Putnam participants of all time.
