Entering Freshmen

In January 1996 the Trustees of the California State University system adopted Executive Order 665 which requires each entering CSU student, unless specifically exempted, to take the CSU English Placement Test (EPT) and the Entry Level Mathematics (ELM) for course placement purposes.  Students who receive scores that place them into remedial and/or developmental English and mathematics courses, must enroll into these courses during the first term of enrollment and each successive term until competence has been demonstrated. The timeline for completion of remedial course work must take place by the end of the second successive semester of enrollment at CSULB.

If your scores on the EPT, or ELM indicate that you will have to enroll in a prebaccalaureate course in either English, mathematics, or both, it is suggested that you strongly consider taking at least one of these prebaccalaureate courses during the summer. It is not required that you do so; however if you can bring your proficiency in these essential basic skills subjects fully up to the collegiate level before the start of the fall semester, you are far more likely to be successful in all of your other courses and you will certainly have more options available to you when planning your fall schedule.

You can take the course in summer session at CSULB, if it is offered, or you can take an approved community college equivalent course. If you choose to do the later, a transcript must be shown to the PASS advisors and to Enrollment Services upon completion.