William Lowell Putnam Competition Official site

William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition Archive (University of Nebraska)
                                    A part of American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) website

• John Scholes has a Putnam Problems page giving problems from past years and solutions to most of them.

• David Rusin has compiled a Putnam Exams page containing links to problems and solutions.

Virginia Tech Regional Mathematics Contest
                   2004 Virginia Tech Math competition will be held on Saturday, Oct. 23, 8:30am-11:00am.

If you are interested in participate Putnam Competition and/or Virginia Tech Regional Mathematics Contest, and want to join the study group for the comptetion, please contact Prof. Junping Shi by email shij@math.wm.edu


Training material from many other universities around US and Canada

MIT: 18.S34 (Fall 2004): PROBLEM SOLVING SEMINAR (taught by Richard Stanley)

           <>18.S34 Mathematical Problem Solving (Fall 2002)

UC Berkeley Math. H90 Putnam Problems Practice Seminar (Fall 2003)
                         Math. H90 Putnam Problems Practice Seminar (Fall 2004)

Stanford  Training for Putnam

Northwestern University Math Problem Solving Group

Harvey Mudd College Math 191: Putnam Problem Solving Seminar

Dalhousie University  Math 2790: A Journey Into The World of Problem-Solving

John Hopkings Putnam Problem Solving (110.225)

Georgia Tech 200 problems selected by Prof Yang Wang

UIUC Math Contests

Harvard Information

University of Waterloo training problems

UCSD  pdf files of problem sets (1980-2003)

Basic questions about Putnam Competition

What is the Putnam Competition?

The Putnam Exam is a nationwide competetive exam given yearly to full-time undergraduates (all majors are welcome) in the United States and Canada. It is voluntary, and problems are presented with clever and ingenious solutions.

What is the format of this test?

The Putnam Exam consists of two parts, each containing six problems. Contestants are given 3 hours to work on each part. The first session runs from 9:00 a.m. to noon, and the second from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.on the same day. You are not allowed to bring notes, books, or calculators.

When is it?

The competition is held on the first Saturday of December every year; this year, it is December 4, 2004.

What topics are covered on the Putnam Competition?

Geometry, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, linear algebra, combinatorics (counting), probability, number theory, complex numbers, differential equations, to name a few. Often, you will have to figure out what topic to use to answer a certain problem. The committee claims that every section contains two problems which only require algebra and cleverness, so you shouldn't be intimidated by this list.

How does the scoring work?

Each problem is worth 10 points, so you can potentially get 120 points. Partial credit is given, but typically this means 0, 1, 9, or 10 points for a problem. The median is usually 0 or 1 points. (That is, at least half of the students taking the test don't get any problems right.)

Created by Junping Shi, September 18th, 2004