SAT Writing TENSES

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1

Hi all!

I’m having difficulties with identifying TENSES errors in the Identifying Errors part of the Writing section. Many times I would get wrong because I would think the TENSES are wrong but their not, and vice versa.

These are what I understand about tenses:
Simple Present - Happening now
Simple Past - Happening in the past. Usually when the sentence has "in year 1896’ would mean a simple past tense

Present Perfect (has/have + past participle) - Something that occurs in the past and continues to affect the present. Usually used when the sentence has the word “Since”
Past Perfect (had + past participle) - something that occurred, and ended in the past. Usually used when the sentence has the word “before”.

This also brings me to another question, what tense should I use when I see the word “After”?

I would really appreciate if someone could assist me with this.

2

Present perfect is also used for actions that happened in the past and ended in the past without any specific time reference:
“Have you seen that movie?” <- correct
“Have you seen that movie yesterday?” <-incorrect