This is rather embarrassing, but I lived in Spain for five years from the age 9 to 14, and I also went through their education system, but I still do not know when to use which of los tiempos verbales.
I am not asking for a list of them, but rather when I should use el presente simple, as an example. I already know them from memory as my teacher made me rote learn them in Spain, just like I also know about the words which form the categories Agudas, Llanas y Esdrújulas.
After this, I would also like to learn the rules for the rarely used verb tenses, despite their being ways to bypass the need to learn them.
What I want: Is there perhaps a cheat sheet, or something that roughly teaches me when I should use a tiempos verbales even if it is not perfectly accurate.
I am sure you can imagine school and speaking Spanish has been a living Hell for me, as I never truly understood when to pick which verb tense. I do know formal vs informal, and which person is speaking such as: yo, tu, el/usted, nosotros, vosotros, and ellos.
I can also completely understand what people are saying, even on the news when they are speaking quickly. I just skipped the verb tenses somehow, and ended up always using them incorrectly, or just using the infinite of a verb as a placeholder for the correct one which also caused lots of confusion.
I hope this shows my level and explains my question.