To complete the written section of the SAT, it is crucial for one to understand and be able to execute the six basic tenses of the English language. Questions are commonly posed on the SAT which deal with or contain broken clocks. What is a broken clock? The concept is simple – verbs have a twofold function, to tell time and to express action. SAT test makers often create questions which deal with the misuse of one but not both of the functions of verbs.
For example, one of the verbs in the sentence may fail to express the correct passage of time or may be out of sequence with the other verbs in the sentence. One must pay special attention to the broken clock trick when dealing with verbs in the perfect tense. While there are a total of twelve tenses in the English language, the SATs primarily deal with the six basic ones that are listed below.
6 Verb Tenses
- Simple Past
- Simple Present
- Simple Future
- Perfect Past
- Perfect Present
- Perfect Future
Most students are quite familiar with the simple tenses of verbs, so this guide will delve deeper into the perfect tenses. While questions involving simple tenses of verbs will appear on the SAT, the majorities of students has rated these questions as ‘easy,’ and are statistically answered correctly. If, however, you’d like to score above average on your exam, mastery of the perfect tenses and knowledge of how to spot broken clocks is critical.
Perfect Past Tense
The perfect past tense is expressed when one event (event A) takes place before another event (event B) and both can be considered completed actions. The trick here is to recognize that an event B must take place in order to execute this tense correctly. For example: I had stopped my car before I read the no stopping sign. This is a correct usage of the perfect past tense. Event A (parking) takes place before Event B (reading the sign), because of this sequence of events, the perfect past tense is proper. A common mistake in this type of sentence would be to use “had + a verb”, but that is incorrect.
Perfect Present Tense
The perfect present tense is much more common and easier to spot. The perfect present tense is used when an action described start in the past and continues into the present. An example of the perfect present tense is as follows:
I have been a mother for ten years.
In this sentence, the action of being a mother started ten years ago but continues into present day. This is an example of the perfect present tense being used correctly.
Perfect Future Tense
The perfect future tense is in a lot of ways like the perfect past tense, but occurs on the opposite end of the time spectrum. In the perfect future tense, Event A occurs before Event B, but they both take place some time in the future. The following sentence is an example of the perfect future tense: By May 2012, I will have graduated high school. In this sentence, we are clued in to the perfect future tense by the words “May 2012” because this date has not yet occurred. Graduating high school has not yet occurred either; therefore the perfect future tense is appropriate in this situation. When taking the SAT, keep an eye to broken time sequences, which may indicate a break in either perfect future tense or perfect past tense.
