I took a crack at answering some vocabulary exercises in Athenaze. And then I took a look at the answer key and what I saw dumbfounded me on how to even start interpreting my own translation.
If my translations didn’t match the answers in the textbook word for word, am I automatically wrong?
If my translations had vaguely the same sense as the answers in the answer keys, do I put a check on it? As in 1 point, and then another point, and finally you got 7, no 8 out of 10 sentences correct.
Regarding the English translations of somewhat complex sentences, is there one correct English translation to rule them all or are translations that had broken English out of a desire to not be adventurous with the translation also correct and accepted?
Impossible to answer this without seeing what you have done. It’s possible that the sentence could be different from the answer key and still technically correct, and it’s possible that it could be different and wrong. Broken English is to be avoided, even if a somewhat literal, wooden translation can usually reveal how you see the Greek.
When the book’s answers differ from your own, you should go through the book’s answer and be able to recognize and explain the grammatical form of each word, and why it was used. Note word order, but don’t worry about it too much. Always try to be more like the book when you repeat any lessons. Look for general ways in which your answers tend to differ from the book’s, and consider them as things to be fixed.