Putnam Competition

The School of Mathematics regularly takes part in the Putnam Exam, an activity managed by Galyna Livshyts and John McCuan. MATH 4802 is taught each fall semester as a preparation for the exam. This is a nationwide exam with about 4000 students participating. The problems are really difficult and the median score is zero.

See http://kskedlaya.org/putnam-archive/ for the problems, solutions, and results of the past competitions. Please contact John McCuan if you have any questions.

For the full history of the competition, see the William Lowell Putnam website. For a complete list of the teams and fellows, see the Mathematical Association of America website. For more information, see Matt Baker's Problem Solving.

The 2016 Putnam was held December 3rd. Over 30 Georgia Tech students participated. The results shall be announced in March 2017.

The 2012 Putnam was held December 8th. Over 30 Georgia Tech students participated. Santhosh Karnik placed in the top 50, Robert Grosse placed in the top 200 and Dylan McKay and Eric Huang placed in the top 500. Total number of participants nation wide was 4,277.

The 2011 Putnam was held December 3rd.

The 2010 exam was held on December 4. Forty students from Georgia Tech took the exam. As he has for many years, Matt Baker taught his problem solving class during the fall semester.

The 2009 competition was held on December 5 from 10am-6pm. The Georgia Tech team placed in the top 200.

In 2008, on a Saturday in December about 20 or so students took the Putnam exam, spending a total of six hours solving mathematical problems. This is a nationwide exam with about 4000 students participating. The problems are really difficult and the median score is zero. The Georgia Tech team of students placed 21st out of 545 teams! The six students listed below got more than 15 points which is an absolutely superb achievement.

  • Dragos Ilas (32)
  • William Drobny (30)
  • Stefan Froehlich (24)
  • Patrick Brandt (21)
  • David Hollis (21)
  • Aisha Arroyo (18)

In the 2007 Putnam Exam we had four participants in the top 300 nationwide: Stefan Froehlich (score 38, rank 135), Dragos Ilas (score 30, rank 221), Jonathan Loesch (score 28, rank 260), and Will Drobny (score 24, rank 292). Stefan is a sophomore and Will is a freshman so we will have a promising team in the next year or two. In addition, Rob Ward scored 20, Aisha Arroyo 13, and Srdjan Lesaja 11. The Putnam Exam is a nationwide exam. That it is difficult is an understatement; in fact, the median score is 0 points!

In the 2006 competition, the Georgia Tech team ranked 39 out of 402 teams. The Georgia Tech student with the highest score was Charles Martin, who scored 49 points and was ranked 100 out of 3640 participants. Adam Tart was ranked 320.5 and Jonathan Loesch 390.5.