"Got any ideas for making that stinking spectroscope work?  It'd be nice if we could check candidate skill at learning to manipulate electron orbitals with Prestidigitation and have a more objective measure of how good they got at that, before final tier assignments.  I have a couple of wacky ideas for getting the spectroscope running, but I don't want to contaminate you with mine."

"Got any ideas for making that stinking spectroscope work?  It'd be nice if we could check candidate skill at learning to manipulate electron orbitals with Prestidigitation, and have a more objective measure of how good they were and how fast they were improving, before final tier assignments.  I have a couple of wacky ideas for getting the spectroscope running, but I don't want to contaminate you with mine."