William Lowell Putnam Undergraduate Mathematics Competition Details

See here for information about registering.
Date: Saturday, December 1, 2012
Time: 10 AM to 6 PM (with two hour lunch break 1 PM to 3 PM)
Place: Hill 705

To register for the exam, send email to Professor Saks (my-last-name at math period rutgers period edu). If you preregister for the exam by October 1, you are guaranteed to be able to take it. If you do not preregister, you may still be able to take the exam.

On the day of the exam. Please arrive at Hill 705 by 9:50. You should come armed only with pencils and an eraser. You should not bring books, calculators, etc. with you.

The exam consists of two parts (morning and afternoon) with 6 problems in each part. Each problem is worth 10 points for a total of 120 points. The exam is very difficult; typically a score of 20 points (2 problems fully correct) is already good enough to be in the top 20% of exam takers. A score of 40 points will probably put you in the top 5%.

Grading is very strict. There is very little partial credit given. If your solution is not well written you may earn only 1 or 2 points.

Some strategy tips:

  • Concentrate on getting a few problems fully correct, rather than doing a little on many problems
  • The first problem of each session is usually much easier than the others, but this does not mean that you should expect to solve it in a few minutes. It may still take considerable time to solve and write the solution.
  • Leave some time at the end to carefully proofread and correct whatever solutions you have done.