Most students will take two to three fewer hours of standardized tests next year, thanks to a new law and a proposed budget cut from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Buried deep in Schwarzenegger's new budget plan is a proposal to save $6.5 million next year by eliminating ---- for most grade levels ---- one of the several standardized tests that most public school students take each spring. What's more, a new state law directs schools to stop giving the test to so many children.

The test, a national math and reading exam known as the California Achievement Test ---- Sixth Edition, or CAT-6, will be given only to students in grades three and eight next year. It is currently administered to students in grades two through 11.

Testing certainly won't disappear under the new plan. Students in grades two through 11 will continue to take a two-week barrage of state tests each April and May in math, English, reading, science and a number of other subjects.

But students will take fewer exams, and testing for most grades will take two to three hours less than usual next year.

Educators and students cheered the change, saying they spend too much time testing and not enough time on their classroom lessons.

"I think most people will be happy not to have to spend so much time staring at tests and bubbling in answers," said Oceanside High School sophomore class President Erica Leal of the change. "We do a lot of testing and getting ready for testing instead of doing normal class things."

The change will most heavily affect high school students, whose testing load will be cut by about three hours. Teens, especially those bound for college, take up to a dozen standardized exams during the spring months, including state proficiency tests, the national test, college admissions exams such as the Scholastic Assessment Test and college placement exams.

Standardized testing for younger children, except those in third and eighth grades, will be cut about 2 1/2 hours.

The changes began with a new law signed by former Gov. Gray Davis in October. They appeared to be sealed late last week when Schwarzenegger announced plans to cut funding for the national test in all but the two grades. The cut came as a small part of a $99 billion proposal to avoid a $14 billion budget shortfall in California's budget. The Legislature has until June 15 to approve a budget for the 2004-05 fiscal year.

But money isn't the only reason the state plans to do away with most of the national exam, state officials said. Educators said the national test, which was chosen eight years ago and revamped in 2002, has become nearly obsolete.

The state's school ranking system, known as the Academic Performance Index, is based primarily on state tests rather than national ones. In addition, educators said the skills measured by the national test are different ---- often easier ---- than the skills required by the California Department of Education. Those skills are measured by a set of exams called the California Standards Tests, or CSTs.

"The (CAT-6) tends to give you less valuable information than the CSTs," education department spokesman Rick Miller said. "It makes sense to reduce the amount of testing we do at the national level."

The scoring system for the national test is also less useful in measuring academic progress than that of the state tests.

Instead of a score, the national test gives students a percentile ranking that compares them with students throughout the nation. Because national scores vary each year, altering the overall rankings, it's nearly impossible to know from a school's percentile figures whether students are making any progress.

Last year, for example, 72 percent of the state's high school freshmen scored at or above the national average on the English language section of the national test. But according to the state standards test, only 38 percent of freshmen had mastered the language arts skills required by the state.

The national test also is not required for annual progress reports under the new federal law that governs education, known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

So why not scrap the test altogether?

Because it allows states to compare their students' scores with those throughout the rest of the United States, Miller said.

"It's important not to completely discount how we're doing compared to the rest of the country," Miller said.