Sometimes I give the students problems which are not problems at all. They only need to demonstrate that they know how to get started. In situations like these, their instructions will say something like, Set up a synthetic division problem for the following dividend and divisor. DO NOT SOLVE IT.
Inevitably someone will ask, “So Mr. Hasan, in problem #2, are we supposed to solve it?” Sadly, this would be the astute student who senses something is amiss. Most don’t read the instructions, and for them this kind of problem is a tricky trap.
I need to fix this. Or maybe I don’t.