This infamous national competition that is taken by around 4,000 students each year is probably the most challenging one in which we UM-Dearborn mathematicians find ourselves participating. Students work the problems individually for two three-hour sessions at their own campus and are scored individually, too. In the past, three students would additionally be designated a school's team, and their combined score would be the school's score. This aspect has changed in that the team will be determined by the individuals who end up with the highest scores.

We recommend that students who want a nonzero score consider focusing on only the first one or two problems per session and try to make significant progress toward a complete solution. This is because partial credit is normally only offered for close solutions, not simply good starts. These problems are also good exercises in persistence for the fact that even the "correct" line of thinking will take several steps to work out a solution.

Site: https://www.maa.org/math-competitions/putnam-competition