Nearly half the freshmen who began college careers last fall at a California State University campus needed remedial courses in English and nearly 40 percent needed help in math, continuing a pattern that has troubled the nation's largest four-year university system for years.

Forty-eight percent of first-time freshmen admitted to one of the 23 CSU campuses in August did not score well enough on English placement exams to be considered proficient in the subject, according to new data released Wednesday. That's only a slight improvement over fall 2002, when 49 percent of incoming freshmen lagged in English.

Slow progress prompted CSU officials to create a test to measure high school juniors' readiness in those core subjects. The exam will debut this spring.

Students requiring remedial help in both subjects have outnumbered those who don't for years at CSU, even though the university system culls its students from the top one-third of graduating high school seniors in California. Lack of improvement in English preparedness among incoming freshmen has particularly dogged the university.

"There are a combination of explanations," said Allison G. Jones, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs. "For example, we have a situation where over 40 percent of our freshmen come from homes where English isn't the primary language."

CSU officials say the system also has higher standards for proficiency than other institutions, pushing more students into the remedial category.

Since 1996, CSU officials have worked closely with K-12 public schools to reduce the percentage of unprepared freshmen, hoping to reach freshmen proficiency rates of 90 percent by 2007. Although the numbers of proficient students have improved slowly -- in 1998, 68 percent of freshmen needed remedial math and English -- the university system acknowledges that the millions of dollars spent on programs to prepare K-12 students in recent years have yielded disappointing results.

"The proficiency rates have remained relatively flat over the last couple of years," Jones said. "Our sense was that we would never get enough money from the state to deal with this. We believe that underscores the need to modify our academic outreach to get to more students."

To do that, CSU officials will administer the short exam to high school juniors to identify the shortcomings sooner. Students who need extra help will have their senior year to study and improve their skills.

Right now, English and math skills are measured by CSU after students already have been admitted to the university. Once students are enrolled in remedial courses, they usually reach proficiency within a year, CSU officials said.

At California State University, Sacramento, 45 percent of freshmen last fall needed remedial math. That's up from last year, when 41 percent lagged. In English, 55 percent of freshmen required remedial courses, the same as in fall 2002.

"We work very hard with these students," said Victoria Valle, associate vice president for enrollment management at CSUS. "We put them in learning skills courses, they are in small classrooms, and we track them very closely."