The Graduate Record Examinations, the most widely accepted set of tests adopted by graduate schools, will now be offered up to twice every month in Korea, saving students a flight to Japan.

Starting this August, a revised format of the GRE will be offered once or twice every month here in the form of computer-based testing, according to the Educational Testing Services and the Ministry of Science, Education and Technology on Thursday.

As part of an introductory promotion for the GRE revised General Test the ETS is also offering registration fees at half-price for the month of August and September.

“We have revised the GRE in order to evaluate more precisely the applicants’ actual skills and potentials,” said David Payne, vice president of ETS back in November 2010.

Thousands of students fly abroad each year to take the unofficially mandatory test for graduate studies in the U.S., which is offered twice a year here and only through paper-based testing.

Many students in Korea, China and Taiwan fly to Japan and other neighboring countries to take the GRE there. Some students spend more than 1 million won ($880) on airfares, testing fees and other expenses to take the test abroad.

The ETS had offered the GRE in CBT format in 2001, but after an incident involving leaked questions, the ETS reduced the number of tests per year and switched back to the PBT format in 2002.

According to ETS, more than 600,000 students from roughly 230 countries take the test each year, which includes analytical writing, verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning.

Some graduate programs here, including those at Seoul National University and Yonsei University, require GRE scores as well.

By Robert Lee (rjmlee@heraldcorp.com)