The Putnam Mathematical Competition

at UW

• Date of Competition
• Problem-Solving Class (Math342)
• Putnam Preparation Sessions
• Important Facts to consider
• Useful Links
• Faculty Members in Charge; contacts

Schedule, problem sets, and registration link here

Date of Competition

First Saturday of December;
session A from 8-11am, session B from 1-4pm.
Lunch will be provided for contestants between 11am and 1pm.

IMPORTANT!

If your religious beliefs prevent you from taking the contest on a Saturday, you may take 

the test after sundown the day before (we will have to ask for permission from the Contest 

Directors, but they generally grant such requests, if submitted in a timely fashion). You will 

have to make arrangements to stay under the supervision of a rabbi or clergyman from

8am on the day of the contest. 

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Problem-Solving Class (Math342)

Students interested in taking the exam are greatly encouraged to register for  the special problem-solving class, Math342. Taking the class will involve mainly homework and board presentations, and will be a fun way to connect to and work with like-minded, mathematically inclined people, and learning problem-solving skills in a more disciplined environment. For more information on this class, click here.

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Putnam Preparation Sessions

Each Monday from 6-8pm in Communications Building B006 (for 2023) we will hold 2-hour long preparation sessions, in which we will solve and discuss Putnam problems, etc. If you are interested in the contest but not registered for Math 342, you definitely should try and attend these Monday evening sessions.

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Important facts to consider

The Putnam Competition has a very large student participation----over 4000 undergraduates, each year. The top 5 scorers receive first prize; traditionally, this is achieved with around 90+ points out of the 120 possible. Top 200 (which, given the number of participants, is quite a good ranking!) is much easier to achieve: you only need about 40+ points, i.e., four problems correctly solved and correctly written up. Top 100 is usually achieved with five problems. Consider this: you get two three-hour sessions, each with six problems to choose from, and all you need to do to achieve a really good ranking is solve a couple of them during each session.

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Useful links:

• Math342, "The Art of  Problem Solving"
• Announcement poster.
• The Official Site for the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.
• The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition Archive.

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Faculty Members in charge of the Putnam Preparation Sessions and Contest Administration:

• Professor Julia Pevtsova (julia@math.washington.edu)
• Professor Ricky Liu (riliu@uw.edu)
• Professor Gaku Liu (gakuliu@uw.edu)
• Professor Danny Shi (dannyshi@uw.edu)
• Professor Jonathan Zhu (jonozhu@uw.edu)

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Registration for Putnam competition:

Students should register individually using this registration form (this link is unique to UW).