The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is a mathematical problem-solving competition that is held annually on the first Saturday of December. All undergraduates who enjoy solving mathematical problems (whether math majors or not) are invited to take part. Math 43900 is a course designed to help participants to prepare for the competition.
Here is the 2013 course syllabus.
First meeting: The first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 27, the first day of classes. This will just be an organizational/introductary session, where will go quickly over the organization of the class, and you can all introduce yourselves to me. We'll also talk briefly about high-level problem-solving strategies, and I'll hand out a sheet of warm-up problems.
December 7, 2013: Here is the 2013 Putnam Competition.
Week 12 (November 19): A practice exam, specifically the 2010 UIUC mock Putnam; exam is here and solutions are here.
Week 11 (November 12): Polynomials. Here are some solutions.
Week 10 (November 5): Games. Here are some solutions.
Week 9 (October 29): Binomial coefficients. Here are some solutions.
Week 8 (October 15): A mock Putnam. The solutions are available here.
Week 7 (October 8): Inequalities [October 9: corrected typo on warm-up problem 1]. Here are some solutions.
Week 6 (October 1): Recurrences. Here are some solutions.
Week 5 (September 24): A grab-bag of problems suggested by participants. Here are some solutions.
Week 4 (September 17): Number theory. Here are some solutions.
Week 3 (September 10): Pigeonhole principle. Here are some solutions.
Week 2 (September 3): Induction. Here are some solutions.
Week 1 (August 27): A grab-bag of problems. Here are some solutions.
Recent Putnam Competitions and Solutions