Putnam

Every year, for the past decade, I've spent the first Saturday in December on campus, and today was no different. 
The reason for this is the Putnam math competition: a ridiculously hard contest, taken by the best few undergraduates at institutions around the country (and in Canada and a few other places).  Typically, the median score is near 0/120 -- that is, of those top undergraduates, about half of them fail to score any points.  That's how hard it is.
I'm pleased with my turnout this year: 13 students, more than I've ever had take it before: and of those, I hope that more than half will get positive score, meaning that we beat the median.
I had fun during the contest: I've never taken it myself (I wasn't aware of it as an undergrad, and here is no facility for anyone beyond that level to take it) but I think that I know how to do about 75% of the questions. It always makes me happy to figure things out in real time, without the pressure that the contestants are under....

Yours, hoping my students did well,
N.