WWU student breaks 35-year-old Putnam Exam institutional record

WWU German exchange student Florian Elbrandt scored in the top 3% on the most recent Putnam Exam, considered the most prestigious undergraduate mathematics competition in the world.

The Putnam Exam began in 1938 and is held each fall by the Mathematics Association of America for undergraduate students in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Students can score a maximum of 120 points on the six-hour exam, but most who take it score a 0 or 1. After hours spent hunched over a chair, 2,159 participants scored a 1 or below last year.

Elbrandt scored 50 points, breaking a 35-year WWU Putnam record of 40, set in 1991 by David Kennerud, a College of Science and Engineering distinguished scholar who now works as an actuary in Seattle. Elbrandt tied for 113th place out of the 4,335 participants.

Elbrandt came to Western as an exchange student from Leibniz University of Hannover and returned to Germany over the winter. Taking the Putnam Exam was the “final highlight” on Elbrandt’s time at Western, he said. 

Each fall, the math department offers a course to prepare students for the exam. The course has been taught by Associate Professor of Mathematics Stephanie Treneer for the past two years, who took the Putnam herself in 1999 and finished with a score of 0.

“It would be hard to succeed in solving even one of the 12 problems unless you have intentionally practiced solving problems of this level,” Treneer said. “They are not problems that have routine solutions that would be covered in any of our regular courses. You have to think creatively, and that becomes easier with practice and exposure to lots of problems and their solutions.”

In Germany, Elbrandt competed in mathematic Olympiad competitions on both national and international levels in high school and was very excited for the opportunity to take Treneer’s Putnam Exam prep course at Western, he said.

“Now I am on Hannover's team for the International Math Competition and host a training class for this competition, too,” Elbrandt said.

Now in his third year studying for his bachelor’s degree in mathematics, Elbrandt plans to enroll in graduate school in Europe when he graduates.

Learn more about Mathematics at WWU on https://mathematics.wwu.edu/ 

Interested in tackling some of the Putnam yourself? Find last year's exam questions here.

Mikayla King, ’17, covers the College of Science and Engineering and Woodring College of Education for University Communications. Reach out to her with story ideas at kingm24@wwu.edu.