No worries!!
The perfect tense (
he jugado) is to say "I have played" which you can hear by how you construct it (whatever conjugated form of HABER you need, haber being an auxiliary verb "to have" so you use it whenever you would in English.
The preterite tense is when you're talking about a completed action with a definite start and finish eg "
jugué al fútbol ayer"
The imperfect tense is when you're talking about an action that doesn't have a definite start point and a definite end. The main two examples this applies to are talking about old habits ("
I used to play football" and interrupted actions ("
I was playing football when it started raining". Fittingly, the last example sentence I gave uses the preterite as well:
Jugaba al fútbol cuando comenzó llover as the action of playing football was interrupted so requires the imperfect and the rain had a definite start point so requires the preterite. That sentence construction is quite a common one but is seen as complex because you're putting two tenses into one sentence which exam boards likey
I hope that helps a bit! Rules of when to use what tense your teachers will probably go through with you profusely, although it's good to know before you go in!
By the end of the year you'll be able to speak without even thinking about it,
te lo prometoAnything else you need that I can try to help you with, let me know