I studied in ABC school from 2013 to 2020. I graduated from that school in the year 2020. I was admitted to the school in grade VI, and progressed up to grade XII. The system is similar to the K-12 system in America. I am currently studying in a college.
I want to emphasize on the fact that I was in class VI when I was admitted to ABC School (I studied there for a long time).
The following sentence does not sound correct to me:
I had been studying in ABC School since class VI.
In order to be able to use past perfect continuous, there should be a reference in the past. For example: X had been happening until Y happened.
I cannot use present perfect continuous because I'm no longer studying in that school.
As per me, this should be correct:
I was a student of ABC School since class VI.
What should be the correct sentence structure in this case?
Best Answer
For actions that began and finished at a specified point of time in the past, using the perfect construction would either be ungrammatical or redundant. The past continuous and its variants, is used to show a temporary action in progress at a specific point of time. The past perfect continuous, e.g. “I had been studying” can be interrupted with a different action that started and finished in the past; e.g. "I had been studying political science before a friend suggested I run for city council.”
In the OP's example, the past simple is all that is needed as we know when the studying completed. There are many ways of rephrasing the OP's statement. In fact, some users have offered valid alternatives in the comments:
The following is my suggestion but any of the above will work just as well.