For many years, the majority of arriving freshmen at the 23 California State University campuses have lacked at least some basic skills any respectable college should expect them to have.

Last fall was typical: Just 42 percent of newcomers tested as having college-level skills in both math and English. Barely half were proficient in English and just 63 percent could do college-level math.

When Cal State officials several years ago became aware of the scope of their problem, their first reaction was to force students to pass remedial classes or get out. Fully 6.8 percent of the 37,870 freshmen admitted for the 2002-03 school year were tossed off campuses at the end of that time when they didn't complete remedial work within two semesters or three academic quarters.

Ironically, the budget cuts that will force the 400,000-student system to cut freshman enrollment by about 10 percent should lead to improved numbers, as some marginal entrants will be forced to switch to junior colleges.

More important, though, will be a new test due to be administered to about 100,000 high school juniors this spring. This will be a virtual carbon copy of placement tests heretofore taken by new students only after they were admitted to Cal State campuses. It's to be given along with the already-mandatory California Standards Test juniors take in the spring, adding almost two hours to the 10-hour exam, which is normally spread over three days. Each junior will have the option of taking the new test or not.

In short, students can find out before their senior year of high school what they need to fix. If it's English, they can spend an entire year taking one, two or even three classes to improve reading, writing and vocabulary skills. They can also learn what they need to boost their math proficiency.

Excuses should therefore end. All credibility should disappear from student bleats about being blindsided when they arrive at Cal State. No longer will students be able to say, as Cal State Northridge freshman Virginia Close did in 2000, "I got good grades all through high school. How was I supposed to know I needed this extra work?"

If students don't know what remedial work, if any, they need by the start of their senior year, they'll have no one to blame but themselves. Alibis are over.

The new test ought to provide big pluses for both students and the campuses themselves. One reason the Cal State system instituted demands that students remedy their academic deficiencies by the end of their first year or go back to community college was money. The classes were costing the campuses more than $30 million, funds that should have been spent for college-level teaching.

No one has calculated how much the system has saved so far because of its tough, three-year-old learn-or-else rule. But at least taxpayers can be sure no one is taking remedial classes two and three times, as many did before. The savings will be even bigger if students prep seriously during their senior year, rather than taking it easy with the oft-reported "senior slump."

For students, the chief advantage of avoiding remedial classes on college campuses is equally plain: Time. The need to master material that should have been learned in high school or even before is one reason many students require five and often six years of full-time study before they graduate. Eliminate at least two remedial classes per term for many students and they should be able to accelerate leaving school, getting steady jobs or advancement to graduate school by a year or more.

Students get all this for merely taking a test that requires less than two hours. The bottom line is that any high school junior headed for Cal State who doesn't leap to take it will be downright wasteful and foolish.