On the first Saturday of each December, thousands of students across the United States and Canada compete in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. Dr. Bogdan Doytchinov, associate professor of mathematics at Elizabethtown College, discussed the competition and Etown students’ involvement in it.
In 1927, Elizabeth Lowell Putnam created a trust fund known as the William Lowell Putnam Intercollegiate Memorial Fund to sponsor a competition like the one her late husband had proposed in 1921. It has been held annually since 1938, with the number of teams and participants growing each year. This competition, run by the Mathematical Association of America since 1935, is free to students and colleges, making it a no-risk opportunity to compete at an intercollegiate level.
The competition consists of two sessions. Students work in a three-hour morning session and another three-hour session in the afternoon. Each participant is given six problems, each worth 10 points, to complete during each portion of the test. However, since the problems are so difficult, it is not expected that everyone will finish. Calculators are not allowed.
The competition scoring method awards either zero, one or two points for attempts and eight, nine or ten points for near perfection. No middle scores are given. Volunteer math professors fly to California over winter break to grade the exams.
Last year’s participation was the highest ever, with 4,113 students from the United States and Canada taking the test. The top five schools receive monetary awards, and the top five individual scorers are also awarded. A list of the top 500 scorers is sent out to all the schools, advertising these students to potential graduate schools and scholarship offers. Etown has had students rank in the top 500 in past years. Last year, one Etown student received ten points, well higher than the median.
Although the highest number Etown has ever had on a team was 15 students, most teams consist of around seven students. Doytchinov said the school tries to recruit the stronger math students so they have a better chance at understanding the problems. “It’s very frustrating when you go in, and you stare at the problems, and you have no idea where to even start,” he said. However, any student is welcome and encouraged to participate, even non-math major students, and there is no pressure to perform. The goal instead is to have fun and try math problems one would not normally get to encounter.
According to Doytchinov, the problems used to be like regular homework problems, possibly more complicated or with bigger ideas. Now, however, the problems are much more nonstandard, and contestants must be creative to figure out the ideas behind the problems. Once the main idea is figured out, the calculations are not overly complicated. The first problem in each session is generally easier than the rest so that students do not get discouraged right away and might be able to complete one or two problems.
Doytchinov has created practice tests, which can be found online for anyone who wants to prepare or simply try the problems. These practice tests consist of problems from past Putnam competitions, as well as other difficult problems.
