In early December, six Petrels took on the聽affectionately referred to as the “hardest math test in the world,”聽and turned in a great performance.
Team Oglethorpe finished in the top third of more than 400 participating teams, an extremely聽impressive showing from the group, who spent their own time outside of class studying and preparing for the competition.
Around 4,000 undergraduates participate in the competition each year. The participants work individually on six challenging math problems over two three-hour sessions, 12 total problems for the day, and are scored both individually and as an institution, with Oglethorpe students competing in three-person聽teams. Cash prizes are awarded to top individual scorers, top teams and top female performance.
聽calls the competition an annual 鈥渃oming-out party for the next generation of beautiful minds鈥� and says 鈥渁 high score on the Putnam can fast-track a young mathematician鈥檚 career, and a team win can put a math department on the map.鈥�
Agbolade Akande 鈥�19,聽, Kaitlyn Harysch 鈥�19, Miguel Lara ’19, Parrish Studebaker ’22, and Christina Minor ’20 all competed in the 2018聽edition. Akande, Dougherty-Bliss, and Harysch also participated in 2017.
