The Putnam Competition is a national mathematics exam for undergraduate students, traditionally during the first Saturday of December. Due to COVID-19, the 81th Putnam Competition has been postponed until February 20th, 2021. You can find more details about the format of the competition this year here.
It is both a challenging and fun exam, in which you will practice your problem-solving and proof-writing skills. Most of the problems require basic calculus and algebra knowledge, so first-year students are encouraged to participate.
Putnam sessions are an informal and friendly chance to meet other students, and talk about problem solving. Typically we will share some problems in advance to think about, we will have a focused discussion at the beginning of the session and then we will discuss some of the problems together and have students present solutions. The meetings will be on Zoom.
If you are interested, please fill out this survey to help coordinate the weekly virtual meetings and the ways in which we will communicate the problems and relevant information about the competition:
Here is the Slack channel of the sessions:
Please reach out to me (Ivan Contreras: icontreraspalacios@amherst.edu) if you have any questions.
Also, spread the word to any of your peers who might be interested.
We hope to see you at the training sessions!
Here is the Zoom link for all the meetings:
https://amherstcollege.zoom.us/j/98192991843
Session 1: Thursday, August 27 (6:00-7:30 PM): The Pigeonhole Principle
Session 2: Tuesday, September 1 (5:00-6:30 PM): Mathematical Induction
Session 3: Thursday, September 10 (6:00-7:30 PM): Calculus
Session 4: Thursday, September 17 (Note change of date, Math Colloquium on Sept. 15) (6:00-7:30 PM): Inequalities
Session 5: Thursday, September 24 (6:00-7:30 PM): Geometry
Session 6: Thursday, October 1 (Note change of date, Math Colloquium on Sept. 29) (6:00-7:30 PM): Matrices
Session 7: Thursday, October 8 (6:00-7:30 PM) : Combinatorics
Session 8: Tuesday, October 13 (5:00-6:30 PM): Number Theory
Session 9: Thursday, October 22 (6:00-7:30 PM): Probability
Session 10: Tuesday, October 27 (5:00-6:30 PM): Algebra
Session 11: Thursday, November 5 (6:00-7:30 PM): Complex Numbers
Session 12: Tuesday, November 10 (5:00-6:30 PM): Generating Functions
Session 13: Thursday, February 18 (6:00-7:30 PM): Favorites
Extras:
Resources
The following are a great source of practice problems, tools and strategies for the Putnam Competition: