It turns out that my professor was intending us to solve the problems by intuition.
So the solution to y(t) = dx(t)/dt + x(t) would be that it is not BIBO stable because if you input the signal ln(t) you would get y(t) = 1/t + ln(t). At t=0 this signal will go to infinite.
I really like this class despite the fact that the homework is ridiculously hard.