diff --git a/ropetest/refactor/patchedasttest.py b/ropetest/refactor/patchedasttest.py
index dfebc4737..25298c453 100644
--- a/ropetest/refactor/patchedasttest.py
+++ b/ropetest/refactor/patchedasttest.py
@@ -105,7 +105,6 @@ def test_integer_literals_and_sorted_children(self):
         source = "a = 10\n"
         ast_frag = patchedast.get_patched_ast(source, True)
         checker = _ResultChecker(self, ast_frag)
-        # start = source.index('10')
         checker.check_children("Num", ["10"])
 
     def test_ellipsis(self):
@@ -127,7 +126,6 @@ def test_assign_node(self):
         source = "a = 10\n"
         ast_frag = patchedast.get_patched_ast(source, True)
         checker = _ResultChecker(self, ast_frag)
-        start = source.index("a")  # noqa
         checker.check_region("Assign", 0, len(source) - 1)
         checker.check_children("Assign", ["Name", " ", "=", " ", "Num"])
 
@@ -136,7 +134,6 @@ def test_ann_assign_node_without_target(self):
         source = "a: List[int]\n"
         ast_frag = patchedast.get_patched_ast(source, True)
         checker = _ResultChecker(self, ast_frag)
-        start = source.index("a")  # noqa
         checker.check_region("AnnAssign", 0, len(source) - 1)
         checker.check_children("AnnAssign", ["Name", "", ":", " ", "Subscript"])
 
@@ -145,7 +142,6 @@ def test_ann_assign_node_with_target(self):
         source = "a: int = 10\n"
         ast_frag = patchedast.get_patched_ast(source, True)
         checker = _ResultChecker(self, ast_frag)
-        start = source.index("a")  # noqa
         checker.check_region("AnnAssign", 0, len(source) - 1)
         checker.check_children(
             "AnnAssign", ["Name", "", ":", " ", "Name", " ", "=", " ", "Num"]
@@ -375,9 +371,10 @@ def test_aug_assign_node(self):
         source = "a += 1\n"
         ast_frag = patchedast.get_patched_ast(source, True)
         checker = _ResultChecker(self, ast_frag)
-        start = source.index("a")  # noqa
+        start = source.index("a")
         checker.check_region("AugAssign", 0, len(source) - 1)
         checker.check_children("AugAssign", ["Name", " ", "+", "", "=", " ", "Num"])
+        self.assertTrue(start is not None)
 
     @testutils.only_for_versions_lower("3")
     def test_back_quotenode(self):