I don't mean to cut into anything that Jeremy himself may say on this matter, but I do think that these are very normal feelings.Jacob Rhoden wrote:1. After completing Chapter 3, section B and I found myself thinking, "Did I get any of those right, I have no idea? Why did I just do them?"
2. I just did practice section 4.1, I got a bunch of them wrong, and now I am like, how do I practice this again knowing what I misunderstood the first time?
Most of the time we read, there is a feeling of uneasiness, rather than satisfaction, because we are never quite sure in a second language that our understanding is right.
Learning to handle language is as much the acquisition of skills as it is the amassing of a repository of knowledge. Dealing with the "fog of" texts, and accepting that you are very often going to make your best rendering possible, while it may not have been the best if more information were possible, is par for the course.
In the cases where there is no key to the exercises in a textbook, you can try your best and then shelve them. You may not get the correct answer, but you will have practiced working with the Greek. If you want to be self-critical, you could jot down your questions / uncertainties as a learner's diary of sorts. That may rationalise your feelings a little and allow you to systematise your ignorance. Knowledge and skill are of course the best, but when we can't yet get the best, awareness of our ignorance is the next best thing. Being aware of that is a step in the right direction.
Most regular participants on the board have moved beyond textbooks and their exercises. They deal with the same feelings that you are experiencing when they look at Greek texts. There is no right or universally applicable response to them.
I suggest that you push on in partial ignorance and despite your feelings. Doing what you can is a surer way forward than stumbling over what you can't. Take the easiest path, with the most markers, get to the end, then come back and work on through it all again. No matter where you are in your engagement with Greek, there will always be little things that come up. What do we do in those cases? Gloss over them? Confront them? Ask for advice? Fudge an answer? Work back from an answer? Memorise and mull over them? In fact in different situations either, one, a combination or perhaps none of those approaches will be the most useful. Acquiring the skills to deal with difficulties is part of the development of your general language learning aptitude, not specifically related to Greek.