Putnam Exam

William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition  (A problem solving competition for undergraduates in the USA and Canada).

HOW? If interested, contact Dr. Cook or Dr. Andrews for information.
WHEN? Each year on the first Saturday in December.
WHO? Over 4000 courageous Math majors each year.
INFO?

* If only one student registers, we will hold the exam.
* If three students register we will have a UAA team.


2014 Exam Participants:Kalila Sawyer   

  • Isaac Ahern
  • Kalila Sawyer
  • Tsogbayar Erdenekhuu
  • Yuqing Wang
  • Alayna Rupert
  • Yoshi Nagaoka
  • Gabriel Sexton
  • Heather Lindsey
  • Connor Younce

Exam Coaches:    Dr. Sam Cook    Dr. Eric Andrews

Kalila Sawyer, 2014
   UAA's involvement in the Putnam Exam keeps getting bigger and better with each year! Every December, over 2,000 students spend 6 hours (two sittings) solving 12 mathematics problems for the exam. The exam's questions cut across the bounds of various disciplines, and self-contained questions that don't fit into any of the usual categories are often included. The contest has been running since 1938, and in 1992 the Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize was established. Prizes are awarded to institutions with the top five scoring teams and to individual team members within them.

   In 2014, 4,320 students from 577 institutions took the exam. Our team did exceptionally well with an overall score of 38, ranking them 123 out of 150 (only the top 150 teams are ranked and listed). The team score was derived from the top three students listed on the registration sheet (Ahern, Sawyer and Erdenekhuu), which also turned out to be our team's top three scorers. We cannot wait to see how our team stacks up this year and hope that participation will continue to grow. Thank you to all those who participated last year; we hope to see you again for another successful exam!