Revision as of 20:53, 29 November 2007

The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is the premier mathematics prize exam for undergraduate students in North America (U.S. and Canada). This page is an overview of MIT's participation in the competition, intended primarily for current or prospective MIT students.

2007 Putnam competition news

The 2007 competition will be held at MIT on December 1, at the usual time (10 AM-1 PM, 3 PM-6 PM) and place (Walker Memorial, 3rd floor gymnasium). Registered participants are asked to arrive at Walker by 9:40 AM for inprocessing. (Please be prompt, so that we do not mistake you for a no-show and give your place to a standby participant.) Between the two sessions, lunch will be provided by the math department, probably in the department common room (2-290).

Advance registration for the 2007 Putnam competition is now closed. If you still want to sign up, email Jan Wetzel (jan at math dot mit dot edu) to get on the waiting list. Standby participants should show up at Walker by 9:30 AM (I had this time mixed up before); we will process the waiting list first, then any last-minute standbys. Experience suggests that we should have enough open places to allow all interested students to participate.

If you are signed up but are unable to participate, please email Jan Wetzel at once so your place can be offered to a standby participant. Thank you.

What will happen on Saturday

When you arrive on Saturday, if you have preregistered, you will find a list at the front of room indicating your ID number (in the column marked "I.D. Number"; confusingly, it is not the same as the index number printed at the far left). That number will match a sheet of self-adhesive labels; find yours and take it to your seat. If you are on the waitlist, you will be assigned an ID number once we determine which ones are not otherwise needed.

Before each session begins, you will be given a manila envelope containing the six problem folders. Please fill out the data requested (name, address, etc.) and attach one label as indicated. Female participants may (but are not required to) affix a red dot to become eligible for the Elizabeth Lowell Putnam prize. DO NOT open the envelope until indicated.

When the session begins, open the envelope to find the six problem folders (each consists of two pages, front and back). Your work to be submitted for grading should begin on the folder; if you run out of room, you may include extra pages by marking each page with your ID number, the problem number, and a page number (e.g., page 2 of 3). Use the white paper provided at the front of the room for scratch work; do not include scratch work in your final submission.

When the session ends, take each problem folder (plus any extra pages), affix one label with your ID number, insert into your manila envelope, then return your manila envelope to the proctor. You may not remove any problem folders from the room. Copies of the problems will be available after the exam ends.

Between the two sessions, all participants are invited for lunch in the math department common room (2-290). Vegetarian options will be available.

Participants may bring their own pencils, pens, and watches. Scratch paper, and a pencil sharpener, will be provided. Please turn off all cell phones before each session begins.

Other news

MIT results from the 2006 Putnam are now available from Profs. Kedlaya, Stanley, and Rogers. Aggregrate results have been posted at the AMC Putnam archive. Congratulations to all of our prizewinners!

There is a nice article about MIT's performance on the 2006 Putnam in the August 2007 issue of Integral, the MIT math department newsletter (Integral); it is available here.

Exam mechanics

MIT's Putnam participation is coordinated by Prof. Hartley Rogers, assisted by Profs. Richard Stanley and Kiran Kedlaya. Consult any of us for additional information about MIT participation. For more information about the competition as a whole, see the official competition web site.

One can sign up at the Undergraduate Math Office (room 2-108), usually for a couple of weeks in October. There is no harm in signing up even if you are not certain you wish to participate, as long as you notify Prof. Rogers if you decide not to take the exam. If you miss the signup period, contact Prof. Rogers to get on the waiting list. If all else fails, you may still be able to take the exam on standby, by showing up early for the first session.

The competition is held every year on the first Saturday in December, in two three-hour sessions. At MIT, the sessions are held in Walker Memorial (3rd floor) and run 10 AM-1 PM and 3 PM-6 PM. Between the two sessions, lunch is typically provided in the math department common room (2-290). Please arrive on time for the sessions, as otherwise your place may be given to a standby participant.

Aftermath and results

After the exam is given, solutions are typically discussed in the seminar 18.S34.

Sometime in March (or early April), overall results of the competition, and individual scores for MIT participants, are mailed to Prof. Rogers. (They are mailed from California, so you are likely to see overall results discussed at Art of Problem Solving and/or in other fora before we receive them here.) After the results arrive at MIT, you should be able to obtain your individual score (in person or by email) from any of Profs. Rogers, Stanley, Kedlaya. A good indication as to whether the results have arrived is whether the overall results are posted in front of the UMO, next to Prof. Rogers's office door, or at the AMC Putnam archive (maintained by Prof. Kedlaya).

Prizes earned by MIT students are usually presented at a dinner party sometime after results are announced. Eligible students will be contacted individually about this.

Team competition

Although students take the exam individually, there is also a team competition with its own prizes. Each school must designate three students in advance as the members of its team; the ranks (not the scores) of these students are added, and the lowest sum wins. (These factors combine to create a disconnect between the individual and team results.)

MIT's team usually consists of the three participating students with the highest results on the previous year's exam (which would preclude first-time participants). However, the choice is ultimately at the discretion of Profs. Rogers, Stanley, and Kedlaya, whose decision is final.

Preparation for the exam

Profs. Rogers and Stanley run a freshman seminar (18.S34) to prepare interested students for the Putnam. Enrollment is limited, with preference given to students with some prior experience with proof-oriented math competitions ("Olympiads").

The Undergraduate Math Association typically hosts some practice sessions in the weeks before the exam.

For those with some experience with proof-oriented math competitions, the first best step towards training for the Putnam is trying some questions from prior exams, to get used to the somewhat different style of the questions.

• The best sources for past exam problems, with solutions and additional discussion, are the three Putnam books published by the Mathematical Association of America.
• All of the problems are available (without solutions) at John Scholes's site.
• Problems and solutions from the last 10-odd years, plus results of the competition, are available at the AMC Putnam archive.

MIT past performance

MIT has historically been one of the schools with the most participants (well over 100 per year in recent years), as well as some of the best results. In the team competition, MIT has placed among the top 5 schools on 36 out of 65 occasions, including first place finishes in 2003 and 2004. At the individual level, in several recent years, MIT students represented over 50% of those ranked among the top 25 participants, and over 30% of those ranked Honorable Mention or above (approximately the top 75 participants). The corresponding data for the top 200 participants is also available, but I have not computed the percentage yet.