"At crunch time at the end of fall semester, Easton Singer '26 had many things piled on his plate: an orchestra performance, final exams and projects, a senior thesis, and applications for graduate school. Yet he put all that aside to spend a precious Saturday in the middle of reading period voluntarily taking yet another exam - one that had nothing to do with his classes nor any impact on his transcript."
"The Kirkland House resident was among more than 50 Harvard students who participated in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, the premier math contest for college undergraduates in North America. Now in its 86th year, the Putnam has a storied history, and many top finishers have gone on to become prominent mathematicians, professors, and winners of Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals."
"Fun? The Putnam exam is notoriously difficult even for people who normally consider themselves pretty good at math. The six-hour exam has 12 questions worth 10 points each. A perfect score of 120 is a rare feat achieved only five times since the competition began in 1938. Last year, only five students in the world scored 80 or higher. Only 45 people - less than 1 percent of the competitors - managed to get even half the available points."
Harvard students voluntarily participate in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition despite heavy academic and extracurricular commitments. Participants cite enjoyment, problem-solving, and social motivations rather than pure competition. The Putnam is a six-hour, 12-question exam with a maximum score of 120; perfect scores are extremely rare. Among nearly 4,000 2024 competitors across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, the average score was 8 and half scored 2 or lower. Only a few competitors achieve high scores, and fewer than one percent score at least half the points. Results for the 2025 test will be released in February.
Read at Harvard Gazette
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