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Putnam Exam

The William Lowell Putnam Exam is the premier undergraduate Mathematics competition in the US and Canada.  It is given annually on the first Saturday in December and consists of 6 problems in each of two 3-hour sessions.  The problems are always challenging, and a score of one correct problem usually places a student in the top quartile.  Here is a nice article by Bruce Reznick (former Putnam problem-writer and professor at UIUC) on writing Putnam problems: 
https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/~reznick/putnam.pdf

I will be running Putnam problem solving sessions for ISU undergraduate students - Thursdays at 1:00pm in Carver 400.  Typically we will talk about problems from the previous week, discuss a new idea or problem strategy, and hand out problems for the following week.  The hope is that students might solve a couple and be willing to present solutions a week later.

2023 Problem Sets:

Week 1 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 2 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 3 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 4 Problem Set

2022 Problem Sets:

Week 1 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 2 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 3 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 4 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 5 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 6 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 7 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 8 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 9 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 10 Problem Set  Solutions

2021 Problem Sets:

Week 1 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 2 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 3 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 4 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 5 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 6 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 7 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 8 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 9 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 10 Problem Set  Solutions

Week 11 Problem Set  Solutions

2020 Problem Sets:

Week 1 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 2 Problem Set    Solutions

Week 3 Problem Set    Solutions

Older Problem Sets:

Problem Set 1 (Induction and Pigeonhole Principle)
Solutions

Problem Set 2 (Polynomials)
Solutions

Problem Set 3 (Calculus)
Solutions

Problem Set 4 (Abstract and Linear Algebra)
Solutions

Past ISU Putnam Team Results

YearTeam RankTop Individual
202256thAndrew Osborne - 31 pts (Rank: 235)
202164thAndrew Osborne - 24 pts (Rank: 265)
2020-Evan Hilton - 9 pts
2019--
201864th-