Jared, you sir are the man! Than you for the clarification

てみる is for trying something out to see how it is (easy to remember by the みる to see/watch) for example "try eating sushi to see if you like it." ようとする is closer to "attempt" to do something. for example I will try to get the homework done before tomorrow. If you can replace the "try" with "attempt then you should probably use ようとする. We use "try" for both situations in English and just know what we mean, but they are different in Japanese. Hope this helps!