This research covers the ability of the student at Politeknik Negeri Ujung
Pandang in mastering simple past tense. The problem statement of this
research is How is ability of the student at Politeknik Negeri Ujung Pandang in
Mastering Simple Past Tense?. This research used descriptive research
method. It is used to describe the ability of the student at Politeknik Negeri
Ujung Pandang in mastering simple past tense. The instrument used in this
research is test through completing uncompleted short story. The research is
focused on the student at Politeknik Negeri Ujung Pandang. There are 20
students as sample, which were taken by using random sampling. The
collection data is done by asking the students to complete the uncompleted
reading story. The students were given forty minutes to complete the story. In analyzing data, the writer scores the students’ test. Then, the researcher calculating the means score of students. After that, the researcher categorizes the students’ scores. The result of the research shows that the ability of the student at Politeknik Negeri Ujung Pandang in mastering simple past tense is bad. The mean score was 2.9. This implies that the students’ ability should be improved through more intensive material on simple past.