OSU
Putnam Competition
This site contains information of interest to OSU students intending
to participate in the
William Lowell Putnam Competition
which is a mathematics problem-solving competition open
to any students enrolled at a four-year undergraduate college or
university who have not entered the competition four times in the
past.
If you are enrolled at OSU and would like to participate this year,
please send me an email at:
We are holding Wednesday discussion seminars before the exam, which are
all completely voluntary. Here is the schedule:
| Day | Time | Room | Guide |
Day | Time | Room | Guide |
| Sep. 23 | 1:30 PM | MS 428 | Dave Wright | Nov. 4 | 1:30 PM | MS 428 | Dave Wright |
| Sep. 30 | 1:30 PM | MS 428 | Dave Wright | Nov. 11 | 1:30 PM | MS 428 | Dave Wright |
| Oct. 7 | 1:30 PM | MS 428 | Dave Wright | Nov. 18 | 1:30 PM | MS 428 | Dave Wright |
| Oct. 21 | 1:30 PM | MS 428 | Dave Wright | Dec. 2 | 1:30 PM | MS 428 | Dave Wright |
| Oct. 28 | 1:30 PM | MS 428 | Dave
Wright | Dec. 5 | 8:50 AM | MS 317 | COMPETITION |
The competition is on Saturday, December 5 at 8:50
AM in MS 317. Please bring only pencils or pens.
Here is a listing of articles in the American Mathematical
Monthly about the past Putnam competitions, the problems and their
solutions.
Monthly Articles on the Putnam
Here are some guides and practice problems:
Go ahead and try some of these. It is important to practice writing
complete solutions down, even when you think you know how to do the
problem. The details of writing often reveal aspects of the problem
you didn't think about before.
The contest consists of two sessions 9 AM-12 noon and 2-5
PM, on the first Saturday in December. Please show up by 8:50
AM in MS 317. Contestants are given six problems to solve
in each three-hour session.
The problems are very difficult, and even solving one is considered a
good result. The grading is very rigorous, and the solutions must be
complete and fully justified and explained. Each problem is worth 10
points, and so the maximum score is 120 points. The problems are so
difficult a large portion of the competitors score 0 every year.
Still, a little bit of familiarity with the exam can go a long way to
ensuring that you solve at least one or two of the problems. OSU
students have had many very good performances over the past ten years,
with the best being in 1997, when the team performance was 20th
out of 300 schools and better than all the Big 12 schools and in fact
many of the elite colleges in the nation.
Here are some useful links about problem-solving:
- William Lowell
Putnam Mathematical Competition
- The contest's home page.
-
Dave Rusin's Putnam File
- Dave Rusin is a professor at Northern Illinois Univ., who is
also a noted Putnam-ophile. He has stockpiled old exams and
other useful information here.
- American Mathematics Competitions
- An organization that promotes mathematical competitions. They
have a problems directory.
-
William Lowell Putnam Competition Archive
- Hosted at the AMC
-
Index to Journal and Contest Problems
- A searchable archive of problems proposed in contests and in journals.
-
University of Florida Putnam Competition Page
- Compiled by Professor Kevin Keating. Has some nice lists of
problems in PDF format (you need Adobe Acrobat to read them).
- CRUX Mathematicorum
- The Canadian Math Society's problem-solving journal.
Last modified: Mon Nov 23 19:06:21 CST 2009