The U of I Putnam Team placed 17th out of 546 participating colleges, one spot better than last year's 18th place and its highest rank since 2002.
The top local scorers were Justin Kopinsky, who earned 68 points out of 120 and placed 56th among the 4296 participants nationwide, and Yi-Wei Chan, who scored 67 points and placed 63rd. Justin and Yi-Wei both received an Honorable Mention for their performance. This is the first time in over two decades that two Illinois students made the Honorable Mention ranks.
The depth of the performance turned in by local participants was equally impressive. In addition to Justin and Yi-Wei, five U of I students made the "Top 500" list, a standard benchmark for performance on the Putnam that represents approximately the top 10 percent of all participants: David Goldstein and Meng Guo, who earned 40 points each and placed 294th; Yaonan Huang and Yongzuan Wu (38 points, 383rd); and Sakulbuth Ekvittayaniphon (31 points, 470th).
Altogether, 14 of the 25 local participants placed in the top 25 percent, and 23 placed in the top 40 percent. The median score for local participants was 19 points, compared to 2 points nationwide.
Also of local interest is the performance of Alex Zhai, a former University High School student, who won the 2008 U of I Undergraduate Math Contest as a high school student and who is now an undergraduate at Harvard. Alex was one of the five highest ranking individuals in the 2010 Putnam Competition and earned the top prize of $2,500 and the designation of Putnam Fellow.
The Putnam Competition, which has been called by Time Magazine the "World's Toughest Math Test", consists of 12 challenging problems, to be solved over 6 hours. Each problem is graded on a 0-10 point scale, for a maximal total score of 120 points.
The U of I has an extensive Putnam training program, including weekly training sessions and informal practice contests in the fall, two local contests with a prize purse, the "U of I Mock Putnam Exam", held in the fall of each year, and the "U of I Undergraduate Math Contest", held in the spring, and a "U of I Putnam Newsletter". These activities are organized by Professors Jozsef Balog and A.J. Hildebrand.