I just found this thread through google, it basically adressed all of my concerns. I took the revised GRE yesterday, and both of my scores were, to put it mildly, less than satisfactory (verbal 156, quant 144). Hoping to be partly excused by the fact that English isn't my native language. I haven't found out my score for the argumentative writing section yet though, still hoping that went better, I know it's probably my strongest side when it comes to GRE. Anyway, I'll be applying to Stanford (East Asian Studies), SAIS (DC), Princeton (Korean history) and SIPA, and I can't help worrying about my low scores. I am thinking that maybe I should take the GRE again (application deadline not before Feb next year so there's time), but at the same time I feel like the practicing is a waste of time. I know that standardized tests aren't my strong side anyway and I don't regard the GRE as an important part of my application anyway. I have had papers published in academic journals within my field, (without even having completed my undergrad studies yet), spent three years working part-time as a free-lance journalist writing analyses on my country of focus for major newspapers in my home country (Sweden), spent the past summers working as a political editorial writer for one of the two nationwide papers back home, etc. And I have been living in my intended country of study (Korea) for 1 1/2 years, learning Korean up to a level where I can read books and newspapers when putting a little effort into it. And when it comes to my application for SAIS, a big advantage will be that I already have internship experience from one of the institutes affiliated with my intended department of study.
I'm not writing all of this down to brag about myself, but more for self-affirmation. My question to those of you who already went through the application process successfully is whether you would recommend me to re-take the GRE or to just accept my scores and hope that they will do. Thanks a lot for your help.