[thechat] Last Math exam

[Luther, Ron]

Syed Zeeshan Haider asked:

> I remember hearing a rumor once that a participant in the world's toughest
> annual math test, <genuflect>THE Putnam</genuflect>, 

>>>>Seems VERY interesting. Never heard of it before. Any links to share? 


Hi Syed,

Sorry -- my error, I forget that it's a US competition.

I believe I've spoken of it here before, but the Putnam is an annual team 
and individual math competition between US undergraduate college students. 
The exam is 'by invitation only'. Each participating college hand selects 
the students they wish to compete.  Normally seniors (4th year students) 
are chosen with sometimes a few juniors (3rd year students) thrown in for 
'seasoning'. Before the exam starts the university designates 3 of their 
students as their "team".

It's held on a Saturday. It starts at 8am.  You are allowed to bring only 
a pencil.  The paper, blank typing sheets, is provided.  You are not allowed 
to put your name on your work. You are given a set of stickers containing 
numbers that you put on finished work you wish to submit. (This is done 
to eliminate examiner bias against people whose names may suggest particular 
ethnicity.)

At 8am you are given a sheet containing 6 math problems.  You have 4 hours 
to work. After which all work is collected.

At noon you take an hour break for lunch.

At 1pm you are given a new sheet containing 6 new problem. You have 4 hours 
to work on these. (I do not believe you are allowed to work on the 'morning' 
problems during the 'afternoon' session. I'm pretty sure the sessions are 
distinct.) At 5pm all work is collected and you go home ... very very tired.

Each problem is worth up to 10 points. So the maximum score possible is 120. 
Partial credit is given.  The first year I took the test ... after 8 hours of 
work by very very bright math students from some of the finest schoold across 
the country ... the median score [rank all individual scores from lowest to 
highest and select the one in the middle so that 1/2 the participants got a 
score higher than this number and 1/2 the participants got a score lower than 
this number] ... the median score was exactly ... zero!  That is a &^%&^% hard 
test!

(The best score in the country that year was 43 points. [Yep - out of 120.] 
That was by a fellow at Case Western Reserve University, less than 10 miles 
away from where I was taking the test in Cleveland, Ohio.  My score that year, 
2 points, placed me somewhere around the 65th percentile I believe.)

As I said ... an *extremely* tough exam.

Some links:
http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/putnam/

This link contains some exam questions and (it looks like) maybe some solutions 
as well:
http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/problems-math/

As an example, here is the 1977 exam (A-1 through A-6 would be the 'morning' 
questions, B-1 through B-6 would be the 'afternoon' questions):
http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/problems-math/MP1977.html


HTH,

RonL.