Putnam Club Archive

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This is the archive (2011-2023) of the UW Putnam Club. For current semester, go here.

Spring 2024

January 31 Brian Lawrence Assorted algebra problems
February 7 Brian Lawrence
February 14 Paul Apisa Multivariable Calculus.
February 21 Paul Apisa Polynomials.
February 28 Brian Lawrence
March 6 Brian Lawrence
March 13 Dima Arinkin Sequences, series, and recurrences
March 20 Dima Arinkin Real numbers
April 3 Laurel Ohm Inequalities
April 10 Laurel Ohm Functional Equations
April 24 Paul Apisa Games
May 1 Paul Apisa Games

Fall 2023

September 27 Dima Arinkin Introductory meeting - assorted problems.
October 4 Dima Arinkin Polynomials.
October 11 Laurel Ohm Calculus problems.
October 18 Laurel Ohm Even numbered problems from last time and additional calculus problems
October 25 Dima Arinkin Number theory.
November 1 Dima Arinkin Let us try something different today: a mock math contest. Let's look at a past Virginia Tech Contests.
November 8 Brian Lawrence Probability
November 15 Brian Lawrence Combinatorics
November 22 No meeting (Wednesday before Thanksgiving)
November 29 Paul Apisa Geometry.
December 6 Paul Apisa Putnam review


Spring 2023

WELCOME TO THE Spring 2023 PUTNAM CLUB!
Organizers: Paul Apisa, Dima Arinkin, Brian Lawrence, Botong Wang

Join us on Wednesdays 5:00-6:30pm (from February 1) at Van Vleck 9th floor lounge for some challenging questions, pizzas and drinks!!!

The seventh UW Madison undergraduate math competition will take place 9am-noon Saturday, April 15 at Van Vleck B115!

If you would like to participate in the undergraduate competition, please register here. Registration is not required - it is only to help us with organization.


The Putnam Exam, offered by the Mathematical Association of America, is the premier American math competition for undergraduate students. In a regular year is given on the first Saturday in December. The exam consists of 12 problems, 6 in the 3 hour morning session and 6 in the 3-hour afternoon session. Each problem is worth 10 points, so the maximum score is 120. National winners usually get around 100 points. The median score is generally around 0-2 points. This is a difficult exam with many interesting and fun problems.

To sign up for Putnam club email announcements, please send an email to putnam-club+join@g-groups.wisc.edu (empty subject and body works).

Meeting February 1, 2023

Paul Apisa

We will discuss inequalities.
Meeting February 8, 2023

Paul Apisa

We continue to work on the above worksheet.
Meeting February 15, 2023

Dima Arinkin

Let's talk about functional equations.
Meeting February 22, 2023

Dima Arinkin

More on functional equations. Canceled due to severe weather.
Meeting March 1, 2023

Botong Wang

We will go over Dima's notes from last week
Meeting March 8, 2023

Botong Wang

We will talk about some probability problems.
Meeting March 22, 2023

Paul Apisa

We will talk about analytic techniques.
Meeting March 29, 2023

Dima Arinkin

Some (easy-ish?) problems to practice the extreme principle.
Meeting April 5, 2023

Botong Wang

We will talk about some binomial and generating series problems
Meeting April 12, 2023

Botong Wang

We will continue to work on the set of problems from last week.
Meeting April 19, 2023

Dima Arinkin

Let's talk about the problems from the last UW Undergraduate Math Competition
Meeting April 26, 2023

Paul Apisa

We will discuss combinatorial configurations.


WiscFall.jpg

Fall 2022

WELCOME TO THE Fall 2022 PUTNAM CLUB!
Organizers: Paul Apisa, Dima Arinkin, Brian Lawrence, Botong Wang

Join us on Wednesdays 5:00-6:30pm (from September 21) at Van Vleck 9th floor lounge for some challenging questions, pizzas and drinks!!!

The 83nd Putnam competition will take place on Saturday, December 3, at Van Vleck B107 (9AM-Noon, 2PM-5PM). Make sure to click the link and register for the competition!!!

The Putnam Exam, offered by the Mathematical Association of America, is the premier American math competition for undergraduate students. In a regular year is given on the first Saturday in December. The exam consists of 12 problems, 6 in the 3 hour morning session and 6 in the 3-hour afternoon session. Each problem is worth 10 points, so the maximum score is 120. National winners usually get around 100 points. The median score is generally around 0-2 points. This is a difficult exam with many interesting and fun problems.

To sign up for Putnam club email announcements, please send an email to putnam-club+join@g-groups.wisc.edu (empty subject and body works).

Meeting September 21, 2022

Botong Wang

We will go over some recent Putnam problems and the Undergraduate math competition problems.
Meeting September 28, 2022

Botong Wang

We will continue to discuss the problems in the sample set and the latest undergrad math competition.
Meeting October 5, 2022

Brian Lawrence

We will discuss polynomials.
Meeting October 12, 2022

Brian Lawrence

We will continue to work on the worksheet from last week.
Meeting October 19, 2022

Botong Wang

We will compute integrals! The file is updated to include a very nice proof.
Meeting October 26, 2022

Botong Wang

We continue to work on the above worksheet.
Meeting November 2, 2022

Paul Apisa

We will discuss linear algebra techniques.
Meeting November 9, 2022

Paul Apisa

We continue to work on the above worksheet.
Meeting November 16, 2022

Dima Arinkin

Number theory!
Meeting November 30, 2022

Dima Arinkin

More number theory (same worksheet with a few more problems).
Meeting December 7, 2022

Brian Lawrence

Meeting December 14, 2022

Brian Lawrence


Spring 2022

WELCOME TO THE SPRING 2022 PUTNAM CLUB!
Organizers: Dima Arinkin, Mihaela Ifrim, Tatyana Shcherbina, Botong Wang

Join us on Wednesdays 5:00-6:30pm (from February 2) at Van Vleck 9th floor lounge for some challenging questions, pizzas and drinks!!!

The sixth UW Madison undergraduate math competition will take place 9am-noon Saturday, April 23 at Van Vleck B115!

If you would like to participate in the undergraduate competition, please register here. Registration is not required - it is only to help us with organization.

The Putnam Exam, offered by the Mathematical Association of America, is the premier American math competition for undergraduate students. In a regular year is given on the first Saturday in December. The exam consists of 12 problems, 6 in the 3 hour morning session and 6 in the 3-hour afternoon session. Each problem is worth 10 points, so the maximum score is 120. National winners usually get around 100 points. The median score is generally around 0-2 points. This is a difficult exam with many interesting and fun problems.

To sign up for Putnam club email announcements, please send an email to putnam-club+join@g-groups.wisc.edu (empty subject and body works).

Meeting February 2, 2022

Dima Arinkin

Meeting at the 9th floor lounge Van Vleck. When: February 2, 2022 05:00 PM.

Matrices and determinants

Meeting February 9, 2022

Dima Arinkin

Functions and calculus
Meeting February 16, 2022

Tatyana Shcherbina

We are going to discuss Analysis problems
Meeting February 23, 2022

Tatyana Shcherbina

We are going to continue to discuss Analysis problems 2
Meeting March 2, 2022

Botong Wang

We are going to discuss Graph theory
Meeting March 9, 2022

Botong Wang

We are going to discuss Geometry
Meeting March 23, 2022

Dima Arinkin

Games
Meeting March 30, 2022

Dima Arinkin

Generating functions and telescoping series
Meeting April 6, 2022

Mihaela Ifrim

Competition problems
Meeting April 13, 2022

Tatyana Shcherbina

We are going to discuss Complex numbers
Meeting April 20, 2022

Tatyana Shcherbina

We are going to discuss Probability problems
Meeting April 27, 2022

Mihaela Ifrim


Fall 2021

WELCOME TO THE Fall 2021 PUTNAM CLUB!
Organizers: Dima Arinkin, Mihaela Ifrim, Tatiana Shcherbyna, Botong Wang

Join us on Wednesdays 5:00-6:30pm (from September 22) at Van Vleck 9th floor lounge for some challenging questions, pizzas and drinks!!!


The 82nd Putnam competition will take place on Saturday, December 4, at Van Vleck B123 (we will move the afternoon exam to B3 floor, most likely B333, due to noise issues) (9AM-Noon, 2PM-5PM). Make sure to register for the competition!!!


The Putnam Exam, offered by the Mathematical Association of America, is the premier American math competition for undergraduate students. In a regular year is given on the first Saturday in December. The exam consists of 12 problems, 6 in the 3 hour morning session and 6 in the 3-hour afternoon session. Each problem is worth 10 points, so the maximum score is 120. National winners usually get around 100 points. The median score is generally around 0-2 points. This is a difficult exam with many interesting and fun problems.

To sign up for Putnam club email announcements, please send an email to putnam-club+join@g-groups.wisc.edu (empty subject and body works).

Meeting September 22, 2021

Botong Wang

Meeting at the 9th floor lounge Van Vleck. When: Sep 22, 2021 05:00 PM.

In the first two lectures, we will take a look at some of the Putnam competition problems from 2020 and 2019.

We plan to start with algebraic problems such as 2019 A1, A2, B1, B3, 2020 A1, A2, B1. Then continue to the analytic ones such as 2019 A3, A4, B2, 2020 A3.

Meeting September 29th, 2021

Botong Wang


Continue the two sets of Putnam problems from last time.
Meeting October 6th, 2021

Dima Arinkin


Polynomials. We'll look at the following problems (the last few problems are quite hard, and we probably won't get to them during the meeting).
Meeting October 13th, 2021

Dima Arinkin


Continuing with the problems from last time. If you have the time, please look at the problems in advance, and then if you have ideas or questions, we would talk about it at the start.
Meeting October 20th, 2021

Tatyana

We are going to discuss number theory problems. The plan is to look on some of the following problems (we probably will not cover them all)


Meeting October 27th, 2021

Tatyana

We will continue to discuss some number theory problems from the list
Meeting November 3rd, 2021

Botong

We are going to discuss Inequalities!
Meeting November 10th, 2021

Botong

We continue the discussion of inequalities
Meeting November 17th, 2021

Mihaela Ifrim

We started discussing Various problems from past competitions
Meeting November 24th, 2021


Thanksgiving break
Meeting December 1st, 2021

Mihaela Ifrim

Working in the extra problems added to the Nov 17th pdf. Solutions to all the problems: Various problems from past competitions
Meeting December 8th, 2021

Mihaela Ifrim

Worked on the actual Putnam problems. Covered half of them.


Meeting December 15th, 2021

Mihaela Ifrim

Worked on the remaining problems; we still have some left: A6 and B5. See you all after the Winter break!




Spring 2021

WELCOME TO THE SPRING 2021 PUTNAM CLUB!


Organizers: Dima Arinkin, Mihaela Ifrim, Tatiana Shcherbyna, Botong Wang

The Putnam Exam, offered by the Mathematical Association of America, is the premier American math competition for undergraduate students. In a regular year is given on the first Saturday in December. The exam consists of 12 problems, 6 in the 3 hour morning session and 6 in the 3-hour afternoon session. Each problem is worth 10 points, so the maximum score is 120. National winners usually get around 100 points. The median score is generally around 0-2 points. This is a difficult exam with many interesting and fun problems.

Due to the coronavirus crisis, the 81st Putnam Competition, originally scheduled for Fall 2020, has been postponed until Feb. 20, 2021. The competition was in an unofficial mode, with no proctors, no prizes, no awards, and no national recognition of high-scoring individuals or teams. The solution papers are uploaded by participants for grading. Scores will be reported back privately to the individual participants and the local supervisor of each institution will receive a report of the scores of the students for that institution.

We will not continue our Putnam club meetings after March 24. See you all in the fall!

Meeting Feb 10, 2021

Botong Wang

ZOOM MEETING: Hi there, You are invited to a Zoom meeting.

When: Feb 10, 2021 05:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrd-yhpjstHt34UK8YJ9_mZJ7NT_G3NLcM After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The first two meetings will be presented by Botong. We will look at some of the most recent Putnam exams to help you prepare for the coming one.

On Feb 10, we will go over some of the 2019 Putnam problems.

Meeting Feb 17, 2021

Botong Wang


Zoom: Please join using the above link!

We will continue to discuss problems in the 2019 Putnam competition. We will also look at some of the 2018 Putnam problems.


Meeting Feb 24, 2021

Dima Arinkin


Zoom: Please join using the above link!

We will look at some of the problems from this year's Putnam (which took place last weekend).

Meeting Mar 3, 2021

Dima Arinkin


Zoom: Please join using the above link!

Let's keep looking at the Putnam problems - some interesting ones left!

Meeting Mar 10 and Mar 17, 2021

Botong Wang

Zoom: Please join using the above link!

This week we will discuss several apects of combinatorics: graphs, set theory and geometric combinatorics. The worksheet is here.

Meeting Mar 24, 2021

Mihaela Ifrim

Zoom: Please join using the above link!

This week we will go over problems in linear algebra and analysis. The worksheet is here.


Fall 2020

WELCOME TO THE FALL 2020 PUTNAM CLUB!


Organizers: Dima Arinkin, Mihaela Ifrim, Tatiana Shcherbyna, Botong Wang


However, this year things are a bit unusual. The 2020 Putnam competition is postponed until February 20, 2021. It is not determined yet whether the competition will be in person or online yet.Here is the original statement on the official webpage of the contest:

Due to the coronavirus crisis, most students in the US and Canada are unable to return to campuses this fall. Therefore, the 81st Putnam Competition, originally scheduled for Fall 2020, will be postponed until February 20, 2021. If most students can return to campuses in the spring, the competition on that date can go forward in much the same form as in previous years. On the other hand, if most students are unable to return to campuses in the spring, the competition on that date will proceed in an unofficial mode, with no proctors, no prizes, no awards, but with solution papers submitted for grading by participants themselves and scores reported back privately to the individual participants.


The UW is also participating in the Virginia Tech Regional Mathematics Contest. This is an individual competition with seven problems in 2.5 hours. Many schools use it as a kind of rehearsal for the Putnam. You can find more information over here.
We will have online meetings every Wednesday 5:00-6:30PM.


The first meeting of this semester will happen on the 16th of September 2020! Please let all your colleagues know that we are continuing the Putnam Club and we are enthusiastic and hopeful we will keep you all engaged throughout the semester!


- - -
Meeting 16 SEPT 2020

Mihaela Ifrim

ZOOM MEETING: Hi there, You are invited to a Zoom meeting.

When: Sep 16, 2020 05:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJApcumhrz4pEtJRe_o0WTGM26u2zTM8T6J5 After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

You will meet us all at some point in time:) First two meetings will be presented by Mihaela. We will each teach two consecutive meetings.

UPDATE (09/17/2020): e met and all the documents (problems discussed and solutions given by you in class, are now shared with you via onedrive (app related to your outlook wisc account!)). I have also sent to you an invitation to use the witheboard attached to the same wisc account! But, do not feel discouraged in case you want to join later! You are always welcomed!

Please check out the following book: Putnam and Beyond! We will use it throughout the meetings!

The first list of problems is posted! Please email me if you want access to it! File:Putnam Problem Set 1.pdf


Meeting 23 SEPT 2020

Mihaela Ifrim


Zoom: Please join using the above link!

We discussed the problems given in the Putnam_Problem_Set_1 and their solutions are now posted on the shared folder. In addition I have also gave you the following problems to think at. File:Putnam September 23 2020.pdf



Meeting 30 SEPT 2020

Tatyana Shcherbyna

ZOOM: Please consider joining !

The next meeting will cover NUMBER THEORY! Please see the attached list of problems!! Enjoy!!! File:Putnam nt1(1).pdf


Meeting 7 OCT 2020

Tatyana Shcherbyna

ZOOM: Please join! Here is the list of problems for the next meeting!!! File:Putnam nt2.pdf If you have solutions for the previous proposed set of problems, please email them so that we can compile a set of solutions. We will post them in our onedrive folder. If you are new, please email us and we will give access to it!
Meeting 14 OCT 2020

Mihaela Ifrim

ZOOM: Please join! Here is the list of problems for the next meeting!!! File:Putnam-Problems-and-Theory-form-Oct-14th-2020-short.pdf A more detailed list is posted on onedrive!
Meeting 21 OCT 2020

Mihaela Ifrim

ZOOM: Please join! We worked out some of the problem proposed on the previous meeting!!! File:Putnam-Problems-and-Theory-form-Oct-14th-2020-short.pdf Some solutions will be posted on onedrive! Reach out to us if you would like access to the solutions and you did not register yet!
Meeting 28 OCT 2020

Tatyana Shcherbina

ZOOM: Please join! The next two meeting will cover Polynomials! Please see the attached list of problems!! Enjoy!!! File:Putnam pol1.pdf
Meeting 4 Nov 2020

Tatyana Shcherbina

Here are the theory discussed on Oct 28 and hints to the problems File:Putnam pol1 hints.pdf and File:Polynomials theory.pdf
Meeting 4 Nov 2020

Tatyana Shcherbina

Here are the solutions of Polynomials problems File:Putnam Oct28 sol.pdf
Meeting 11 Nov 2020

Dima Arinkin

On ZOOM (the link is above). The topic for the next two meetings is Linear algebra. Here are the problems I plan to discuss, and here is a short summary (from NWU) of some common linear algebra techniques for math contests.
Meeting 18 Nov 2020

Dima Arinkin

On ZOOM (the link is above). Continuing with the linear algebra: here are the problems (including some left-overs from the last time).
Meeting 2 Dec 2020

Botong Wang

On ZOOM (the link is above). The topic for the next two meetings is limits of sequences (sections 3.1.3, 3.1.4, 3.1.5 in Putnam and Beyond). We will go over some basic theorems and discuss how to apply them. Here is the worksheet.



Spring 2020

The Putnam Club will help you prepare for the exam by practicing on problems from previous years and other olympiad-style problems. The meeting time is 5pm on Wednesdays in VV B139.

The book we will mainly use as a guide in preparing our meetings is: "Putnam and Beyond" by Razvan Gelca and Titu Andreescu.

Fall 2019

The Putnam Club will help you prepare for the exam by practicing on problems from previous years and other olympiad-style problems. The meeting time is 5pm on Wednesdays in VV B139. The first meeting will be on the 25th of September in Van Vleck hall, room B139.

We will continue using the Piazza page from last semester for discussions. The book we will mainly use as a guide in preparing our meetings is: "Putnam and Beyond" by Razvan Gelca and Titu Andreescu.



Spring 2019

The Putnam Club will help you prepare for the exam by practicing on problems from previous years and other Olympiad-style problems. The meeting time is 5pm on Wednesdays in VV B139. The first meeting will be on the 6th of February in Van Vleck hall, room B139.


! Important announcement: We will begin preparing you for the Putnam exam earlier this year. The material covered will be presented gradually. More details will be explained to you during your first meeting of this semester (Feb 6th). We put together a Piazza account that will help the participants to discuss and collaborate with their pairs. Here is the link you need to access in order to register for this "class": piazza.com/wisc/fall2018/putnam2018 . Our intervention on Piazza will be minimal (some of the instructors will, from time to time, visit the piazza questions and provide some help). Also, based on your requests, we have decided to structure our meetings in a way that will provide more insight on methods and certain tricks that are very often used in this type of math competitions. The book we will mainly use as a guide in preparing our meetings is: "Putnam and Beyond" by Razvan Gelca and Titu Andreescu.

If this material is completely new to you then read through the definitions in the first section and try the interspersed exercises which are direct applications of the definitions. If you are familiar with the basic material then review the problem solving strategies and the example problems which directly utilize the techniques. Finally, if you are a veteran, go ahead and jump right to the exercises!

  • February 27: Alex: Review results from 2/20. Bring written solutions and/or be prepared to present your
  • March 6th: Mihaela
  • March 13: Mihaela

etc.

Fall 2018

The Putnam Club will help you prepare for the exam by practicing on problems from previous years and other olympiad-style problems. The meeting time is 5pm on Wednesdays in VV B139. The first meeting will be on the 26th of September in Van Vleck hall, room B139.

! Important announcement: We put together a Piazza account that will help the participants to discuss and collaborate with their pairs. Here is the link you need to access in order to register for this "class": piazza.com/wisc/fall2018/putnam2018 . Our intervention on Piazza will be minimal (some of the instructors will, from time to time, visit the piazza questions and provide some help). Also, based on your requests, we have decided to structure our meetings in a way that will provide more insight on methods and certain tricks that are very often used in this type of math competitions. The book we will mainly use as a guide in preparing our meetings is: "Putnam and Beyond" by Razvan Gelca and Titu Andreescu.


  • September 26: topic Introductory meeting by Mihaela Ifrim. We covered only the first 3 problems. I encourage you to work out all the problems!
  • October 27: Virginia Tech Math Contest: 9-11:30am in VV B115.
  • November 21: No meeting: Happy Thanksgiving!
  • December 1: Putnam Competition! Starts at 9am!!!! The competition will take place December 1st 2018 (Saturday December 1st). The competition is administered in two sessions (A and B) on the same day, December 1st! Session A will start at 9 am and it will end at 12pm, and Session B will start at 2pm and it will end at 5pm. You should arrive at least 10 minutes prior to each session. You should bring your own pencils and pens (blue or black ink are permitted). Number 2 pencils with erasers will be needed to complete the identification forms. Erasers are also permitted, but nothing else will not be allowed in the exam room. I plan on bringing 20 such no 2 pencils. The exam room is B239 which is a class room located in Van Vleck Hall, at the level B2. Thank you all for participating and see you all there! If you have friends that would like to take the exam please encourage them to do so.

Spring 2018

The Putnam Club does not meet in the spring, but we had the fourth annual UW Undergraduate Math Competition on April 24th, 2018, 5:30-8pm in VV B239.

Fall 2017

The Putnam Club will help you prepare for the exam by practicing on problems from previous years and other olympiad-style problems. The meeting time is 5pm on Wednesdays in VV B139.

Spring 2016

The Putnam Club does not meet in the spring, but we had the third annual UW Undergraduate Math Competition on April 19th, 2017.

Fall 2016

Spring 2016

The Putnam Club does not meet in the spring, but we had the second annual UW Undergraduate Math Competition on April 12th, 2016.

Fall 2015

.

Spring 2015

The Putnam Club does not meet in the spring, but we had our first UW Undergraduate Math Competition!

Fall 2014

Fall 2013

Fall 2012

Fall 2011