The William Lowell Putnam Competition
The William Lowell Putnam Competition
The William Lowell Putnam Competition (commonly known as the Putnam
Exam) is an annual mathematics competition for regularly enrolled
undergraduates in colleges and universities of the United States and Canada,
who hve not yet recieved a college degree. The exam itself is
offered on the first Saturday in December, and is composed of two
three hour sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon,
with six questions each.
The official announcement for this years Putnam Exam at KU can
be found
here
The Putnam exam tests originality, technical competence, and
familiarity with a range of topics at the undergraduate level.
Many of the problems are very
interesting, cutting across the boundaries of various disciplines.
Solutions typically
require a clever approach combined with some ingenuity and,
oftentimes, perseverance. To help students develop their problem
solving skills, we offer a series of introductory
``training sessions`` each year.
On this page, you will find information on this years Putnam exam and
training sessions at KU.
The Putnam at KU
The Seventy Fifth Annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical
Competition will be held on Saturday, December 3, 2016 in 306 Snow
Hall. The morning session will be from 9:00-12:00 and the afternoon
session from 2:00-5:00.
The Putnam training sessions are organized by the KU Department of
Mathematics as a way to help students prepare for the Putnam exam. In
each session, students will work through and discuss a series of
problems centered around that sessions particular problem solving topic.
Unless otherwise announced, all Putnam
training sessions at KU are held from 5:00-7:00 in 564 Snow
Hall. This years Putnam training schedule:
- Thursday, November 2: Professor Mat Johnson will lead a
problem session centering on the pigeonhole principle, mathematical induction,
and recursion.
- Wednesday, November 8: Professor Zhipeng Liu will lead a
problem session centering on counting and probability.
- Thursday, November 16: Professor ?? will lead a problem session
on number theory and algebra.
- Thursday, Nocember 30: Professor Dionyssis Mantzavinos will lead a problem session
on functions, sequences, series, differentiation and integration.
Online Putnam Resources
Lots of information regarding Putnam preparation and other problem
solving resources can be found by
simply searching around online. Here is a list of a few of the
resources that might be helpful.