the first time I tried/had tried doing it since . . .

Hi, Basant Al-Sayed,

@Basant Al-Sayed posted:

Dear sir,

I came across this sentence:

It was the first time I .......... doing it since I had been at university .

( have tried - tried - had tried - am trying)

I think the correct answer is " tried" but I don't know the reason

'Tried' could work if the phrase or clause introduced by since correlates with a superlative or ordinal. However, I think that the past perfect could also work in your example. The problem I see here is the usage of the past perfect in the since clause. I think using 'was'  would sound more natural. If we relate the time to the present, the original sentence will be like this:

- It is the first time (that) I have tried doing it since I have been / was at university. (Present)

- It was the first time (that) I had tried / tried doing it since I had been / was at university. (Past)

@Basant Al-Sayed posted:

Dear sir,

I came across this sentence:

It was the first time I .......... doing it since I had been at university .

( have tried - tried - had tried - am trying)

I think the correct answer is " tried" but I don't know the reason

Hello, Basant and Ahmed—For me, only "had tried" is correct. Although it is possible to say "It was the first time I tried doing it," the "since"-phrase renders the perfect tense necessary.

The sentence "It was the first time I had tried doing it since I had been at (the) university" implies "Since I had been at (the) university, I had not tried doing it (until that time)."

By the way, I've edited your title, Basant. Originally, it was "Which answer is correct and why?" One of our guidelines here is not to write titles like that. They do not inform other members or visitors about the content of the thread.