The Sixty-Sixth Annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition

The 2005 Putnam Mathematical Competition will take place on Saturday, December 3. The competition consists of two exam papers, each of which contains 6 questions, and is open to regularly enrolled undergraduates who have not yet received a college degree. High school students are also eligible.

Putnam exam questions are challenging, but not impossible. The solutions tend to involve using elementary material in clever ways, rather than knowing vast amounts of mathematics. The 1998 exam can be found on the Math Department's web site.

Interested students should contact Professor Hans Volkmer (volkmer@uwm.edu, 229-5950) in order to be registered for the exam. Professor Volkmer will run weekly practice sessions between now and December for registered students.

If you are not sure whether you want to take the exam, you should register anyway: registration can be cancelled later. Also, freshmen and sophomores are encouraged to consider registering: you may not do very well at your first attempt, but the experience will be valuable if you retake the exam in later years.

Links:

• SCU Putnam Exam Page
• University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
• University of Albany