The William Lowell Putnam Exam, administered by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), is a yearly competition for undergraduates in mathematics in the U.S. and Canada. It is a team competition, although each team member completes the examination independently. This exam is held the first Saturday in December, here at OSU. Old exams with solutions are published in American Mathematical Monthly.
The exam tests originality as well as technical competence. It presumes that the math courses you have taken are more difficult than minimal required courses. The questions also assume that the contestants have been exposed to ``a survey of the foundations of mathematics,'' and that such areas as group theory, set theory, graph theory, lattice theory, number theory, and cardinal arithmetic have been encountered.
Prizes are awarded to the departments of mathematics of the institutions with the five winning teams. There are also prizes for each of the team members, a single scholarship for studies at Harvard University, and an additional prize for meritorious performance by a female team member.
See the Math Office for the name of the exam supervisor.