Try Mode and Hint Captions

Stephanie,

There may be other ways to do this; let's see what others post. In the meantime, I don't create many simulations in Articulate for my clients, but let's see what we can do.

From my recollection, the Try Again layer is created when the learner is allowed multiple attempts to type information in the slide.  So, you could go to the slide that includes the text box variable and select Form View. Once in Form View, you could change the Attempts to 1 and the Try Again layer will disappear.

To remove the multiple acceptable answers, change Score to None

Next, if you don't want the user to receive Correct layer feedback, set Feedback to None

That should accomplish your goal. I don't think you need to create more variables. 

Let me know if this works for you. Happy New Year to you!

Richard