My Final Putnam Exam...2009 Edition

Well a few weeks ago I took my last Putnam exam. And I can say with a smile on my face that not only did I perform just as well as last year, but I have even exceeded the expectations I held when first entering UF. Initially I expected that I would only be able to answer two questions on the whole exam by the time I graduated. However, this year I answered (though probably not in enough detail for full credit) 4 question. The amazing thing is that even of the questions that I didn't answer I was headed in the right direction for most of them. For instance, one question asked you to find all possible values for some variable given some conditions. Finding the upper bound was rather trivial, but the lower bound wasn't quite as obvious. During the contest I found the correct lower bound, but didn't realize that I had arrived at it by evaluating a Riemann sum. Oh well you win some you lose some.

I'll post the problems and as much of a solution for each problem (if possible) on my other blog. I would have done it here but sadly I don't have LaTex enabled, so it would not only look ugly but also be a pain for me to write (as well as you to read).

One last thing, on the off chance that I haven't mentioned it earlier, I am applying to graduate schools. At the moment the list consist of Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Duke, NYU, and Wisconsin-Madison. All would be great places to attend, so fingers crossed.