Putnam Competition

The William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition is today.

The Putnam Competition is a North American math contest for college students offered each year on the first Saturday in December. Over 3000 students will spend 6 hours (in two sittings) trying to solve 12 problems (at 10 points a problem, the maximum score is 120). Individual and team winners get some money and a few minutes of fame. High scorers almost invariably go on to earn their Ph.D. and generally end up as top-tier mathematicians in their particular research areas.

I took this exam once in my undergraduate career and scored either 11 or 13 (I don't remember). A most humbling experience, but also not a bad result, relatively speaking. The median score is usually 2 (yes, 2 out of 120, that's not a typo).

For past exams and their solutions see this website.

Also, the wikipedia article has a list of past winners.