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I was reading Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman and came across this section:

Feynman had a big gap above others

Image transcribed: "One of Feynman’s fraternity brothers was surprised to see him return home while the examination was still going on. Feynman learned later that the scorers had been astounded by the gap between his result and the next four."

I got this screenshot from https://books.google.com/books?id=IWQ_y90P2uIC&q=putna#v=snippet&q=putnam&f=false

Is this true? From what I can tell, he was simply one of the 5 top scorers in the 1939 Putnam.

It seems that other resources say the same thing, but I can't find any primary evidence.

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    $\begingroup$ Please consider transcribing the excerpt. If Imgur is down, this question is incomprehensible. $\endgroup$
    – Rodrigo de Azevedo
    Jan 19 at 8:15
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    $\begingroup$ It is correct that the scores of the top 5 are not publicly released. But of course it is difficult to refute "Feynman learned later". $\endgroup$
    – Gerald Edgar
    Jan 19 at 8:52
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    $\begingroup$ I remember this assertion quite well from when I read the book back in 1992 or 1993. Look in the Notes section, specifically the 3rd of the '83' notes on p. 453, which cites 'F-W', where 'F-W' (see p. 445) refers to "Interviews with Charles Weiner, 4 March 1966, 27-28 June 1966, and 4 February 1973". $\endgroup$
    – Dave L Renfro
    Jan 19 at 18:25
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    $\begingroup$ "Feynman received the highest score in the country by a large margin on the notoriously difficult Putnam mathematics competition exam, although he joined the MIT team on short notice and did not prepare for the test." in J Wai 2011. $\endgroup$
    – Cosmas Zachos
    Jan 19 at 23:13
  • $\begingroup$ I guess, one can write to MAA to find out. $\endgroup$
    – Moishe Kohan
    Jan 20 at 12:58

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This is Feynman's memory of an unnamed person who told him that. To quote him in an interview:

Anyway, I was among the first five. I have since found out from somebody from Canada, where it was scored, who was in the scoring division—he came to me much later and he told me that it was astonishing. He said that at this examination, “Not only were you one of the five, but the gap between you and the other four was sensational.” He told me that. I didn’t know that. That may not be correct, but that’s what I heard.

Interview of Richard Feynman by Charles Weiner on 1966 March 5, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA.

Thank you Dave L Renfro for pointing me here. I was lucky to find this -- the word "Putnam" was never mentioned!

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