Almost every year since 1938, The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition ("the Putnam") has been written in North America by keen students of mathematics. For the last several decades it has been given on the first Saturday in December.
The York Mathematics Department provides a free lunch to every student who writes the exam! Students are given six problems to solve in the morning three hours, and another six in the afternoon three hours. The problems are FAR more interesting and difficult than those encountered in standard university math courses, and considerably more difficult than problems on, say, the Waterloo high school math competitions.
It is a mystery why the exam is given at a time (early December) when few undergraduates are willing to spare six hours of hard work from preparation for fall term exams. Perhaps the Mathematical Association of America wants
to make sure that only the most dedicated math students take the exam.
Nowadays, over 3500 undergraduates from around 500 colleges and universities write the Putnam exam each December. About half of these students typically solve zero -- yep, none -- of the twelve problems. That is how difficult the problems are. It is very difficult to get part marks on a problem -- the graders usually give almost full marks or almost zero on a problem. In 2001, the top score on the Putnam by a York student was 21 out of 120. In 2000, no York student got above 0 out of 120. In 1998, two York students managed scores of around 50 out of 120. That is extremely good.
If you think you might like to try "writing the Putnam" this year, please send an e-mail to the Putnam supervisor at York for this year,
Prof. Richard Ganong (ganong@yorku.ca).
And do it VERY SOON. No Later than the 8th of November.
The exam paper will be written on Saturday,
5 December 2009. The morning session is from 10 a.m. till 1 p.m., and the afternoon session follows the lunch break, and runs from 3 p.m. till 6 p.m. Accommodations are made, often, for religious reasons; Ganong has a few times wound up the final writing session around midnight Saturday or 1 a.m. on Sunday.
One Putnam rule is that people who already have a Bachelor's degree are not eligible to write the paper for marks (but last year one person with a Bachelor's wrote the paper unofficially at York).
There is a lot more information about the Putnam in general, and exams and some solutions from past years, in publications such as The American Mathematical Monthly and Crux Mathematicorum. For an excellent on-line resource for Putnam and other mathematical competitions see the website:
http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/putnamindex.shtml
It is a super source for problems, solutions, history etc. from many of the past twenty years or so, and it has links to links to many other relevant web pages. Also, check out:
http://math.scu.edu/putnam/index.html
The Mathematical Association of America recently republished two of the older books in its series of books on the Putnam exam. A third book in the series appeared recently:
Mathematical Contest in Modeling
The Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) is a contest where teams of undergraduates use mathematical modeling to present their solutions to real world problems. Each team can have a maximum of three members who work together to find a solution to one of three posed problems. The solution may include mathematics as well as computer simulation. The team must also write a report on their solution. Problems are designed to be open-ended and are unlikely to have a unique solution. Attention must be focused on clarity, analysis, and design of the solution.
For further information on the contest please see http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests. In past years York has entered two or more teams in the contest. In general, York?s teams excel and have received Honourable Mentions (2005-2007) and a Meritorious Winner (2008). The MCM will take place on February 18-22, 2010. If you are interested in participating in the MCM please send an email to the MCM coordinator
Prof. Jane Heffernan (jmheffer@yorku.ca) - BEFORE January 10, 2010.
An information/training session will be given in late January (date to be announced).
History Of Mathematics
The History of Mathematics Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America Is pleased to announce its seventh annual Student Paper Contest in the History of Mathematics. This contest is open to all undergraduate students. The purpose of this contest is to increase awareness and interest in the history of mathematics among undergraduates, and to encourage students to learn more about an area in the history of mathematics of their choosing.
First and second places winners will be chosen. Winners will receive a one year student membership to the MAA and the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Mathematics. The MAA membership includes a one year subscription to Math Horizons Magazine and Math Magazine. Winners will also receive selected historical titles from the MAA Bookstore.
Deadline for submission is March 31, 2010
For more information, please visit
http://www.homsigmaa.org