For many students, tenses can be one of the toughest things in English language learning. Many of my students struggle (badly) in tenses, and it always takes forever to help them understand this complicated system. Sometimes, because of the very limited exposure these rural kids get, it is a mission impossible for them to grasp the idea. So I came out with this table which works for most general questions. Students can use this as a guideline to answer the essay question in PT3.

This helps them as they read the question and work out the expected tenses needed for Question 6.

*I understand that English is rather a complicated language and sometimes it is common to have both tenses used in a writing, or , say people also write formal letter with simple past to mention about something that has already happened. However, the idea behind this table is to help the weaker group and it is (in my opinion) to adapt to their needs and make things easier for them, to allow them to focus on putting in ideas and writing a more complete piece of writing. If you are looking for materials for higher level learners, you might want to add in some extra information to accommodate what they already know.

Happy Learning, Happy Teaching.