Computer-based testing was supposed to make test-taking more efficient, accessible and convenient.

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But while computers have made test taking easier for some students, critics say that electronic testing is still susceptible to scoring errors, security breaches and other flaws.

Prompted by a sudden rise in GRE verbal scores from China, the Educational Testing Service launched an investigation on behalf of the GRE board that uncovered Asian-language websites offering questions from live versions of the computer-based GRE general test.

The GRE board instructed the ETS to temporarily suspend the computer-based GRE general test in China, Taiwan and Korea until security can be guaranteed. ETS will reintroduce paper-based versions of the exam in these regions that will be administered just twice a year, in November and March.

"(The GRE board) found that the only secure way (to administer the GRE in these countries) is to return to pencil and paper," said John Yopp, vice president for graduate and professional education for ETS.

"In this situation, (paper-based exams) provided us with a more secure solution," said Carole Beere, chairwoman of the Graduate Record Examinations board.

Critics of computer-based testing say the return to paper signals larger flaws and inaccurate scores that have plagued computerized tests since their inception.

"This is just the latest snafu in a string of problems since the ETS began the introduction of the computer-based GRE in the early 1990s," said Bob Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest. "This is a technology that is not ready for prime time that has been forced on test takers because of corporate greed."

The ETS investigation, which covered more than 40 countries, showed security breaches occurring only in China, Taiwan and Korea.

Investigators found that verbal test scores in these regions increased each time a computer-based version of the test was replenished with a new pool of questions.

However, critics say the extent of the cheating could be even more widespread, since the Asian-language websites (which the ETS did not identify, citing security reasons) are accessible from the United States and elsewhere with native speakers and online translation services.

"The notion that, in the age of the Internet, this problem would be confined simply to Asia is ludicrous," Schaeffer said.

Cheating scandals aren't new to standardized tests. In one elaborate scam, GRE test-takers in New York allegedly phoned answers to a man in Los Angeles, who used the three-hour time-zone difference to encode answers on pencils.

But while the forms of cheating have changed, paper-based exams still provide a secure alternative to computer-based exams, since all items are used on the same day and then retired. With computerized testing, the same pool of items is used for two or three months.

"That provides a tremendous incentive for people to memorize part of it," Schaeffer said. "You can't re-use items for extended periods of time."

Still, officials want to return to computer-based testing as soon as security is restored.

"I don't think that people are blaming computer-based testing (for security breaches)," Beere said. "The World Wide Web, the Internet -- any technological progress -- brings new opportunities and also new challenges. We see this as part of the growing pains. We haven't even realized all the advantages (of computer-based testing) yet."