There are six progressive tenses. Some grammarians refer to the progressive tense as the progressive aspect of a verb. The progressive tense shows an “ongoingness” of the action denoted by the verb.
The progressive tense is formed by using the verb to be as an auxiliary verb and adding the present participle (-ing) of the verb. Thus, the present-progressive tense is formed by writing the present tense of the verb to be (am, is, or are) and adding the ‑ing verb. Thus:
He is studying for the exam.
