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Ethan Bloch Mathematics Chair Phone: (845) 758-7266 E-mail: bloch@bard.edu
Lauren Rose
Mathematics Program | ||
PUTNAM MATHEMATICAL COMPETITION
Information
The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is a day-long exam administered to college mathematics students in the United States and Canada every year on the first Saturday in December. The Putnam is given in two three hour sessions, each consisting of six problems. The Putnam is not a test of your mathematical knowledge, but rather of your problem solving skills. All of the problems can be solved using standard undergraduate mathematics. However, the problems are extraordinarily difficult; many people taking the Putnam cannot solve any of them!
The sixty-ninth annual Putnam exam will be held on Saturday, December 5, 2009. On the day of the Putnam, the Bard Mathematics Program provides breakfast beforehand, lunch at Kline, and pizza afterwards. Students interested in taking the 2009 Putnam exam should contact Greg Landweber or Jim Belk. Good Luck!
Preparation
Students interested in preparing for the Putnam should not study advanced theorems, but rather practice solving as many hard problems and past Putnam problems as they can find, and hone their proof writing. Courses that are particularly helpful for Putnam preparation are:- Mathematics 299, Problem Solving Seminar
- Mathematics 261, Proofs and Fundamentals
- Mathematics 316, Combinatorics
Bard Results
2008
In 2008, the Bard team placed 41st out of 545 participating institutions. The team consisted of:
- Ciprian Mandici placed 335th,
- Zhexiu Tu placed 619th, and
- Tomasz Przytycki placed in the top 1000.
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2007
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(Photos courtesy of Japheth Wood.)