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.

Exam mechanics

MIT's Putnam participation is coordinated by Prof. Hartley Rogerrs, assisted by Richard Stanley and Kiran Kedlaya. Consult any of us for additional information.

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.

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, lunch is typically provided in the math department common room (2-290).

Individual and aggregate results are usually sent out sometime in March. Check with the UMO to see whether scores have arrived, and to find out who can tell you your individual score (typically one or more of Profs. Rogers, Stanley, 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.

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 may also host practice sessions shortly 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 30% of those ranked Honorable Mention or above (approximately the top 75 participants).