Hatrack River Forum: Math Competitions?

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Posted by Jeorge (Member # 11524) on :

So, I thought it would be interesting to know if anyone here is involved or ever has been involved in any math competitions? [Smile]

I was involved in state (MAML - Maine), regional (NEAML - New England), and national (ARML) competitions in high school, and did the Putnam Exam in college.

Posted by katdog42 (Member # 4773) on :

I did the Putnam Exam in college. I think I got two right one year.

Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :

A friend of mine in college did the Putnam. A bunch of friends tried to get me to do it, but I didn't like the idea of a test where 50% of the people who take it get 0, 1 or 2 out of 120.

He came in 17th freshman year, top 3 sophomore year, etc. Our team won every year he took it, except for the year that CalTech decided to participate. But when that happened, the contest was really for 2nd place anyway.

Posted by xnera (Member # 187) on :

I was in my math club in high school, and went to some local competitions. TONS of fun. Wish I could do something like that again.

I don't recall my college going to any math competitions (I was president of the math & compsci club) but we did go to some C++ programming competitions. That was fun, too. [Smile]

Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :

I did the AMC & AIME when I was in high school, as well as the Putnam a couple years in college. I even got some points!

I also did JETS (Jr. Engineering Technical Society) when I was in high school, which was loads of fun.

Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :

I've done ARML, AMC, and AIME. Fun times [Smile]

Posted by anti_maven (Member # 9789) on :

What is a maths competion?* Any cool links out there for a seeker after truth?

* who'll be first for the bdum tschhhh I wonder?

Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :

I was on the Rhode Island team for ARML for three years. Fun times indeed.

I should've taken the Putnam when I had the chance, but I was too busy or lazy or something.

Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :

I did the AHSME and AIME oh so many years ago, and took the Putnam exam a couple of times (best score was 3 and a partial). I took some other tests whose names I can't remember (though I'm pretty sure they included the entrance exams for CCS at UCSB), and there were Math Field days (I owned Rapid Transit) and other events whose names I also can't remember. Back in the day, I was probably the best known math student in the county.

Yeah, it's sad to have to go that far back for glory days, but at least I had glory days, right? Even if they were in math.

Posted by Jeorge (Member # 11524) on :

Oh yeah...I forgot AHSME/AMC and AIME. Did those too. [Smile]

My freshman year of college, I ranked 140ish overall on Putnam, which I figure must have put me in the top twenty-five freshman, but I never saw any detailed stats so I don't know for sure.

It was pretty funny how, as a freshman, I was swampled with invitations to attend graduate schools after those stats came out. [Big Grin]

anti_maven: You can find information about ARML and William Lowell Putnam exams pretty easily just by searching for those on a search engine.

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

I almost got to China on the strength of a math competition once. I placed 7th, the 6 best were going to be the Norwegian team. I did get to go to Denmark the year before that. The Norwegian team placed 11th. Of 11 Baltic countries participating... Baltic Way, it was called.

Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :

Nothing beyond the local competitions in high school, which were a surprising amount of fun.

Like the night we found an alpaca in the hallways of our high school. [Smile]

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

Oh hey, I found the problem set they gave us. I think I solved problem number 19. One of the judges said that my solution was "Extraordinarily complex". I was wrong about how badly we did, though, we were actually number 8, ahead of St Petersburg (not sure why it's not "Russia"), Iceland, and Lithuania. I see my solution only got three out of five, though. Don't remember if I worked on any of the others.

Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :

Oh, that's nice, it's in English. Maybe I'll take a look...

Posted by Zenox (Member # 8987) on :

I'm a freshman in high school currently, and I do AMC/AIME, GPML, ARML, and a couple other local contests. Fun stuff [Big Grin]

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lisa:
Our team won every year he took it, except for the year that CalTech decided to participate. But when that happened, the contest was really for 2nd place anyway.

Caltech (the "t" is lowercase) has participated in the Putnams every year for a very long time -- since sometime in the 50s. Harvard & MIT both tend to do better, historically, although Caltech had an impressive streak in the early-to-mid 70s.