Putnam Club Archive

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WELCOME TO THE FALL 2020 PUTNAM CLUB!


Organizers: Dima Arinkin, Mihaela Ifrim, Tatiana Shcherbyna, Botong Wang

The Putnam Exam, offered by the Mathematical Association of America, is the premier American math competition for undergraduate students. It a regular year is given on the first Saturday in December. The exam consists of 12 problems, 6 in the 3 hour morning session and 6 in the 3 hour afternoon session. Each problem is worth 10 points, so the maximum score is 120. National winners usually get around 100 points. The median score is generally around 0-2 points. This is a difficult exam with many interesting and fun problems.

However, this year things are a bit unusual. The 2020 Putnam competition is postponed until February 20, 2021. It is not determined yet whether the competition will be in person or online yet.Here is the original statement on the official webpage of the contest:

Due to the coronavirus crisis, most students in the US and Canada are unable to return to campuses this fall. Therefore, the 81st Putnam Competition, originally scheduled for Fall 2020, will be postponed until February 20, 2021. If most students can return to campuses in the spring, the competition on that date can go forward in much the same form as in previous years. On the other hand, if most students are unable to return to campuses in the spring, the competition on that date will proceed in an unofficial mode, with no proctors, no prizes, no awards, but with solution papers submitted for grading by participants themselves and scores reported back privately to the individual participants.


The UW is also participating in the Virginia Tech Regional Mathematics Contest. This is an individual competition with seven problems in 2.5 hours. Many schools use it as a kind of rehearsal for the Putnam. You can find more information over here.
We will have online meetings every Wednesday 5:00-6:30PM.


The first meeting of this semester will happen on the 16th of September 2020! Please let all your colleagues know that we are continuing the Putnam Club and we are enthusiastic and hopeful we will keep you all engaged throughout the semester!


- - -
Meeting 16 SEPT 2020

Mihaela Ifrim

ZOOM MEETING: Hi there, You are invited to a Zoom meeting.

When: Sep 16, 2020 05:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJApcumhrz4pEtJRe_o0WTGM26u2zTM8T6J5 After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

You will meet us all at some point in time:) First two meetings will be presented by Mihaela. We will each teach two consecutive meetings.

UPDATE (09/17/2020): e met and all the documents (problems discussed and solutions given by you in class, are now shared with you via onedrive (app related to your outlook wisc account!)). I have also sent to you an invitation to use the witheboard attached to the same wisc account! But, do not feel discouraged in case you want to join later! You are always welcomed!

Please check out the following book: Putnam and Beyond! We will use it throughout the meetings!

The first list of problems is posted! Please email me if you want access to it! File:Putnam Problem Set 1.pdf


Meeting 23 SEPT 2020

Mihaela Ifrim


Zoom: Please join using the above link!

We discussed the problems given in the Putnam_Problem_Set_1 and their solutions are now posted on the shared folder. In addition I have also gave you the following problems to think at. File:Putnam September 23 2020.pdf



Meeting 30 SEPT 2020

Tatyana Shcherbyna

ZOOM: Please consider joining !

The next meeting will cover NUMBER THEORY! Please see the attached list of problems!! Enjoy!!! File:Putnam nt1(1).pdf


Meeting 7 OCT 2020

Tatyana Shcherbyna

ZOOM: Please join! Here is the list of problems for the next meeting!!! File:Putnam nt2.pdf If you have solutions for the previous proposed set of problems, please email them so that we can compile a set of solutions. We will post them in our onedrive folder. If you are new, please email us and we will give access to it!
Meeting 14 OCT 2020

Mihaela Ifrim

ZOOM: Please join! Here is the list of problems for the next meeting!!! File:Putnam-Problems-and-Theory-form-Oct-14th-2020-short.pdf A more detailed list is posted on onedrive!
Meeting 21 OCT 2020

Mihaela Ifrim

ZOOM: Please join! We worked out some of the problem proposed on the previous meeting!!! File:Putnam-Problems-and-Theory-form-Oct-14th-2020-short.pdf Some solutions will be posted on onedrive! Reach out to us if you would like access to the solutions and you did not register yet!
Meeting 28 OCT 2020

Tatyana Shcherbina

ZOOM: Please join! The next two meeting will cover Polynomials! Please see the attached list of problems!! Enjoy!!! File:Putnam pol1.pdf
Meeting 4 Nov 2020

Tatyana Shcherbina

Here are the theory discussed on Oct 28 and hints to the problems File:Putnam pol1 hints.pdf and File:Polynomials theory.pdf
Meeting 4 Nov 2020

Tatyana Shcherbina

Here are the solutions of Polynomials problems File:Putnam Oct28 sol.pdf
Meeting 11 Nov 2020

Dima Arinkin

On ZOOM (the link is above). The topic for the next two meetings is Linear algebra. Here are the problems I plan to discuss, and here is a short summary (from NWU) of some common linear algebra techniques for math contests.
Meeting 18 Nov 2020

Dima Arinkin

On ZOOM (the link is above). Continuing with the linear algebra: here are the problems (including some left-overs from the last time).

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Spring 2020

The Putnam Club will help you prepare for the exam by practicing on problems from previous years and other olympiad-style problems. The meeting time is 5pm on Wednesdays in VV B139.

The book we will mainly use as a guide in preparing our meetings is: "Putnam and Beyond" by Razvan Gelca and Titu Andreescu.

Fall 2019

The Putnam Club will help you prepare for the exam by practicing on problems from previous years and other olympiad-style problems. The meeting time is 5pm on Wednesdays in VV B139. The first meeting will be on the 25th of September in Van Vleck hall, room B139.

We will continue using the Piazza page from last semester for discussions. The book we will mainly use as a guide in preparing our meetings is: "Putnam and Beyond" by Razvan Gelca and Titu Andreescu.



Spring 2019

The Putnam Club will help you prepare for the exam by practicing on problems from previous years and other Olympiad-style problems. The meeting time is 5pm on Wednesdays in VV B139. The first meeting will be on the 6th of February in Van Vleck hall, room B139.


! Important announcement: We will begin preparing you for the Putnam exam earlier this year. The material covered will be presented gradually. More details will be explained to you during your first meeting of this semester (Feb 6th). We put together a Piazza account that will help the participants to discuss and collaborate with their pairs. Here is the link you need to access in order to register for this "class": piazza.com/wisc/fall2018/putnam2018 . Our intervention on Piazza will be minimal (some of the instructors will, from time to time, visit the piazza questions and provide some help). Also, based on your requests, we have decided to structure our meetings in a way that will provide more insight on methods and certain tricks that are very often used in this type of math competitions. The book we will mainly use as a guide in preparing our meetings is: "Putnam and Beyond" by Razvan Gelca and Titu Andreescu.

If this material is completely new to you then read through the definitions in the first section and try the interspersed exercises which are direct applications of the definitions. If you are familiar with the basic material then review the problem solving strategies and the example problems which directly utilize the techniques. Finally, if you are a veteran, go ahead and jump right to the exercises!

  • February 27: Alex: Review results from 2/20. Bring written solutions and/or be prepared to present your
  • March 6th: Mihaela
  • March 13: Mihaela

etc.

Fall 2018

The Putnam Club will help you prepare for the exam by practicing on problems from previous years and other olympiad-style problems. The meeting time is 5pm on Wednesdays in VV B139. The first meeting will be on the 26th of September in Van Vleck hall, room B139.

! Important announcement: We put together a Piazza account that will help the participants to discuss and collaborate with their pairs. Here is the link you need to access in order to register for this "class": piazza.com/wisc/fall2018/putnam2018 . Our intervention on Piazza will be minimal (some of the instructors will, from time to time, visit the piazza questions and provide some help). Also, based on your requests, we have decided to structure our meetings in a way that will provide more insight on methods and certain tricks that are very often used in this type of math competitions. The book we will mainly use as a guide in preparing our meetings is: "Putnam and Beyond" by Razvan Gelca and Titu Andreescu.


  • September 26: topic Introductory meeting by Mihaela Ifrim. We covered only the first 3 problems. I encourage you to work out all the problems!
  • October 27: Virginia Tech Math Contest: 9-11:30am in VV B115.
  • November 21: No meeting: Happy Thanksgiving!
  • December 1: Putnam Competition! Starts at 9am!!!! The competition will take place December 1st 2018 (Saturday December 1st). The competition is administered in two sessions (A and B) on the same day, December 1st! Session A will start at 9 am and it will end at 12pm, and Session B will start at 2pm and it will end at 5pm. You should arrive at least 10 minutes prior to each session. You should bring your own pencils and pens (blue or black ink are permitted). Number 2 pencils with erasers will be needed to complete the identification forms. Erasers are also permitted, but nothing else will not be allowed in the exam room. I plan on bringing 20 such no 2 pencils. The exam room is B239 which is a class room located in Van Vleck Hall, at the level B2. Thank you all for participating and see you all there! If you have friends that would like to take the exam please encourage them to do so.

Spring 2018

The Putnam Club does not meet in the spring, but we had the fourth annual UW Undergraduate Math Competition on April 24th, 2018, 5:30-8pm in VV B239.

Fall 2017

The Putnam Club will help you prepare for the exam by practicing on problems from previous years and other olympiad-style problems. The meeting time is 5pm on Wednesdays in VV B139.

Spring 2016

The Putnam Club does not meet in the spring, but we had the third annual UW Undergraduate Math Competition on April 19th, 2017.

Fall 2016

Spring 2016

The Putnam Club does not meet in the spring, but we had the second annual UW Undergraduate Math Competition on April 12th, 2016.

Fall 2015

.

Spring 2015

The Putnam Club does not meet in the spring, but we had our first UW Undergraduate Math Competition!

Fall 2014

Fall 2013

Fall 2012

Fall 2011

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