Feedback
Putnam Competition
Are you an SFU undergraduate who relishes a challenge? The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is held on the first Saturday of December each year. In 2011, over 4000 undergraduates from more than 550 institutions in Canada and the USA entered the competition. Wikipedia has a good overview of the Competition.
The Putnam isn't easy. Typically more than half the entrants in any year score 0, 1 or 2 points — out of a possible 120! Yet the questions don't assume anything beyond standard undergraduate mathematics. Success in answering questions requires persistence, originality, and crystal-clear expression of ideas.
Interested?
- Try your hand at a few problems from previous Putnam Competitions to see what it's all about.
- Register for the writing-intensive course MATH 370W, The Art and Craft of Problem Solving.
- Contact Jonathan Jedwab to be included on the SFU Putnam email list and to be notified of problem-solving activities throughout the year.
- Attend a drop-in training session.
Training for the 2013 Putnam Competition begins in Summer 2013.
Putnam 2011 Team