Thank you both for your very helpful responses!! (and sorry for my late response; I was expecting an email when a response came in, so I'm still figuring this forum out).
Daniel, I appreciate your response very much. I suspect that reasonable guessing is all that is really wanted out of this particular question of the test. To that end, your tips are very helpful, so thank you!
Panini, thanks so much for doing some extra research on the matter! It is confusing that there would be such a discrepancy. Anyway, I don't think I've misinterpreted the directions. Just for good measure, I've included the instructions here as shown on the exam (in the original Japanese) and with my translation:
問1。次のデータは、Alabamanのものです。下の設問に答えなさい。
[alabaman word data list as previously included, with more examples]
(Rand, Earl (1968) The Structural Phonology of Alabaman, A Muskogean Language.
International Journal of American Linguistics, vol. 34-2, pp. 94-103. の表記を若干改変)
[問1−1]
a,b,d,k,pについて、例にならって、ドットで音節境界を示しなさい。
例:[geŋ.go.ɣa.ku]
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Translation:
Q1. The following data is of Alabaman. Answer the questions below.
[Alabaman word list]
(Rand (1986)... has been slightly altered)
[Q1-1] For a,b,d,k,p, place a dot at the syllable boundary, as shown in the example.
Example:[geŋ.go.ɣa.ku]
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So at least, there is an acknowledgement that the original data has been altered and might even just be fictitious, probably for the sake of exercise. Regarding the role of syllables in simplifying phonological rules, I'll say that the following questions ask to describe the rules for long vowel sounds, aspiration, and nasalization. So maybe the syllable question is just a way of priming us to think about it when we describe the other phenomena. And I'm sure the whole thing is more of a "given these examples, what kinds of linguistic patterns can you detect?" rather than "tell us the real story about Alabaman" (hence the altering of the original data).
Well thank you both again for your (very quick) answers! I will look forward to continuing to use linguistforum!