The William Lowell Putnam Undergraduate Mathematics Competition is an annual presitigious mathematics contest that is open to all full-time undergraduates in the U.S. and Canada. It offers prizes for individuals and teams. The competition consists of a challenging 6 hour examination that is usually held the first Saturday of December. (Note: if you can't make this time because of religious observance, it may be possible to arrange an alternative time.) The questions are chosen to test ingenuity and insight rather than knowledge of advanced material.
Undergraduates from Rutgers University have participated in the exam for many years. In 2006, the Rutgers 3 person team finished 19th (out of about 400 teams) and 6 students finished within the top 25% nationwide.
Results of Rutgers students past exams
Additional information including past exams can be found here and here . If you look at old exams, keep in mind that the exam is intended to be very difficult. Only about 1/3 of the students taking the exam get even one problem correct out of the twelve problems in the exam!
If you want to take the exam, you need to register between September 1
and October 1.
Send email to saks@math.rutgers.edu with the
header ``Putnam registration'' and include the following
information:
Students interested in learning some of the problem solving techniques needed for the exam may wish to enroll in or attend the Seminar in Mathematical Problem Solving. this fall. If you have any questions, you should feel free to contact the faculty sponsors for the exam Professor Michael Saks and Professor Steven Ferry