Math Contests at Illinois

Quick Links

• Math Contests Flyer. A flyer with an overview of the 2019/2020 activities.
• Math Contests Presentation. Slides from the presentation given at the Math Contest Open House on September 10, 2019.
• Math Contest Problem Archive. Problems and solutions from past UI math contests.
• Books and Resources.
• Mailing List: To receive news and announcements about upcoming activities, sign up for the UI Putnam Mailing List by sending an email to ajh@illinois.edu with your email address (i.e., NetID) at illinois.edu. Put "Putnam Mailing List" in the subject line.

About the UI Math Contest Program

The UI Math Contest Program is one of the most extensive and most visible in the country. It has been considerably expanded in recent years with additional contest opportunities and an enhanced training program, and participation in our events is at record levels. Our students have produced outstanding results in national competitions, culminating in an Honorable Mention for the UI Putnam Team in 2015.

Activities offered include training sessions and practice contests in the fall; several local math contests with attractive prize purses; and opportunities to participate in prestigious national and international competitions, including the William Lowell Putnam Competition., the Virginia Tech Regional Math Contest, and the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM).

2019/2020 Activities and Events

• UI Math Contest Open House: Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019: 7 pm - 8 pm, 314 Altgeld Hall.
  An informational meeting about our program of math contests, training sessions, and related activities.
• Math contest training sessions: Tuesdays, 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm, 443 Altgeld Hall, beginning Sept. 17. A series of informal training sessions split into two periods, with a pizza break at the halfway point. You can attend the first or the second period, or both. No registration required.
• Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019, 10 am - 12 pm, 245 Altgeld Hall: UI Freshman Math Contest. An entry level math contest, restricted to UI Freshmen. PRIZE MONEY: Up to $300 in prize money to the top scorer. Registration is free.
• Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019, 1 pm - 4 pm, 245 Altgeld Hall: UI Mock Putnam Exam. A local contest, similar in format to the Putnam, open to all UI Undergraduates. PRIZE MONEY: Up to $300 in prize money to the top scorer(s). Registration is free.
• Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019, 9 am - 11:30 am, 245 Altgeld Hall: Virginia Tech Regional Mathematics Contest (VTRMC). A Putnam-style contest, held simultaneously at campuses of participating institutions; see the above link for more information. First offered at Illinois in 2013, this contest attracted 23 local participants.
  Registration for UIUC students will open up in mid September.
• Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019, 9 am - 5 pm, 245 Altgeld Hall: Putnam Exam. A nationwide math problems contest for undergraduates, and the most prestigious contest of its type.
  Registration for UIUC students will open up in early October.
• February 13 - 17, 2019: Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM). An international team contest in mathematical modeling at which thousands of teams from institutions around the world participate each year. Faculty sponsorship is available for interested and qualified teams of UIUC undergraduates.
  Last year, three of the five teams we sponsored received a "Meritorious Winner" designation, corresponding to a top 8% ranking among all entries.
• Saturday, February 22, 2020 (tentative), UI Undergraduate Math Contest. The main contest event in the spring semester. PRIZE MONEY: Up to $300 in prize money to the top scorer(s). No registration required.

News and Announcements

• Results of the 2019 MCM/ICM Math Modeling Contest. The UIUC teams had one of the strongest showings ever at this contest, which took place January 24-28, 2019. Of the five participating UIUC teams, three earned a "Meritorious Winner" designation, placing among the top 8% of all teams. For a full report click on the above link.
• Results of the 2018 Putnam Competition. Twenty-six UI students participated in the 2018 Putnam Contest, held December 1, 2018. Six UI students made the "Top 500" list, placing in the top 11%. The UI Putnam Team placed 32nd among the over five hundred participating colleges and universities. For more details click on the above link.
• Results of the 2019 U of I Undergraduate Math Contest. The 2019 UI Undergraduate Math Contest was held February 16, 2019. The winners are Zihan Wang (First Prize), Alan Hu (Second Prize), and Kyungmo Ryu (Third Prize). See the above link for more information and links to contest problems and solutions.
• Results of the 2018 Virginia Tech Math Contest. Twenty-one UI students participated in the Virginia Tech Regional Undergraduate Mathematics Contest (VTRMC), a Putnam-style contest held October 27, 2018. Stephen Fan was the top-ranking local participant, placing 70th overall among the 792 participants at this contest. He was followed by Ziyi Chen and Jason Xia, who placed 74th and 105th overall.
• 2018 UI Fall Math Contest Results. The first two contest events of the 2018/19 academic year, the Freshman Math Contest and the UI Mock Putnam Exam, were both held on Oct. 13, 2018. The top three spots on the Freshman Contest went to Jason Xia, Albert Cao, and Letian Zheng. The Mock Putnam Exam was won by Ziyi Chen, with Jason Xia in second place and Samuel Guo and Alan Hu tied for third place. See the above link for more information, and links to contest problems and solutions.

The William Lowell Putnam Competition

The William Lowell Putnam Competition is an annual math contest for undergraduates sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America. It has been called the "world's toughest math test", and is widely considered as the most prestigious contest of its kind. More than 4000 students from colleges and universities in the United States and Canada participate in this contest each year. The Putnam competition is held simultaneously at participating universities, usually on the first Saturday of December.

The Putnam competition consists of a morning session and an afternoon session of three hours each. In each session, six problems are to be solved. The problems are graded on a 0 - 10 point scale, for a maximal score of 120 points. The problems are challenging and require considerable ingenuity and insight, but little technical knowledge beyond high school mathematics. It is extremely rare that a contestant solves all 12 problems. For example, in the 1996 Putnam competition, the highest score was 98 points, and a score of 10 (the equivalent of a single problem solved correctly) would have placed a contestant among the top third of all 2400 participants! The highest ranking participants from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in recent years have earned scores in the 40 - 60 point range and ranked in the top 100.

The Putnam competition is open to all regularly enrolled undergraduate students; for details on how to enter click on the link below. In addition to the individual competition, there is also a team competition among participating colleges. The team rank of a college is determined by the scores of three participants from that college who have to be named in advance. The team members will, of course, still be ranked as individual contestants. The 25 highest scoring individuals and the five highest scoring teams receive monetary awards. While the University of Illinois team has not made it into the money ranks in recent history (the closest we got were an 8th place in 1975 and a 9th place in 2015), during the past ten years two of our students (Yi-Wei Chan in 2009 and Haidong Gong in 2015) placed in the top 25 in the individual competition and earned $250.

• Sample problems
• The AMC (American Mathematics Competitions) Putnam Archive.
  Backup site (temporary backup of AMC Putnam Archive, courtesy of Kiran Kedlaya)
• Official Putnam web site
• UI team rank and leading scorers since 1970

Local contests

Results of these contests are available at the following link: History of local contests. For problems and solutions see the UI Math Contest Problem Archive.

• The UI Mock Putnam Exam. The UI Mock Putnam Exam is a local version of the Putnam Exam, held each year in early fall. It is similar in format and content to the Putnam competition, but the problems are somewhat easier. The Mock Putnam Exam serves as a practice test for the Putnam Exam, and a key tool in the selection of the U of I Putnam Team. Prizes of up to $300 are available to the top scorer(s).
• The UI Freshman Math Contest. A recent addition to the local math contest offerings, the UI Freshman Math Contest is held in early fall in conjunction with the UI Mock Putnam Exam. Somewhat easier than the Mock Putnam Exam and restricted to Freshmen, the UI Freshman Contest provides incoming students an opportunity to show their problem solving skills in direct competition against their peers.
• The UI Undergraduate Math Contest. Formerly known as the "Orange and Blue Contest", the UI Undergraduate Math Contest is a long-running, locally organized problems contest, held in the spring semester. Prizes of up to $300 await the top scorer(s).

The UI Putnam Newsletter

The UI Putnam Newsletter is an email newsletter containing announcements about the Putnam competition and other contest-related activities at the U of I. The mailing list for the newsletter is maintained by Professor Hildebrand; to be put on this mailing list, send an email to ajh@illinois.edu with your email address (i.e., NetID) at illinois.edu. Put "Putnam Mailing List" in the subject line.

Note: This is a local newsletter, with announcements of local events and activities that would be of little interest to those not at the U of I. To keep the mailing list manageable, it is restricted to U of I students and faculty, and an illinois.edu address is required.

Links and Resources

• Books and other resources for math contests
• Problems and solutions of past UI Math Contests

Of Related Interest

• Undergraduate research opportunities. The recently created Illinois Geometry Lab (IGL) and the Illinois Risk Lab provide opportunities for undergraduates to get involved in research and outreach projects.
• Math Honors program. The Math Honors Sequence is a sequence of challenging courses, taught in small sections by carefully selected research-active faculty.
• Math Scholarships, Awards, and Prizes.
• Math Clubs. PiMuEpsilon is a national math honors society that has a chapter at the University of Illinois. MATRIX is a local math club that started in 2004.

Last modified: Fri 13 Sep 2019 02:00:38 PM CDT A.J. Hildebrand