CoreyM

Don't give up hope astronaut. With just a bit of extra practice you can find yourself soaring to the grad school of your dreams. For the quant scores that you listed, a company I've worked for found that to get a 5-point improvement you'll need to spend approximately 38.6 hours of focused study time. So rounding that, you're looking at about 40 hours of focused study time. And by focused study time, I mean: 1) break up the GRE into "digestible" skills, 2) identify your weakest skills, and 3) focus on questions in your weakest skills.  Many students do this on their own, by making an Excel spreadsheet to see what kinds of questions they're missing on practice exams. There are also some products out there focused on identifying and targeting your weakest skills.
You'll also want to make sure that you're studying smart. Focus on quality, not quantity. Learn what you need to learn, and do not mindlessly practice for hours on end. Take every single question seriously and review your answers carefully to make sure you learn to never make the same mistake twice. If you target practice and improve your performance skill by skill, before you know it you’ll be seeing a clear increase in your GRE score and soon enough, you’ll be hitting and exceeding your target GRE score. Don't let a couple of points on the quant section stand between you and your dreams.

I don't have the best gre score (Q: 154, V 155) from a couple of years ago but I have worked in a couple of research labs post-undergrad and my financial situation is making it hard for me to take the gre again before the December deadlines. I know I can do better though because I have studied more and my practice exams have been 158-162 for both. I currently work within the department I am wanting to get into and therefore I know someone within the program too (my PI). He really wants me to get in and possibly join the lab as a student. Is it possible I can still get in with these scores? Just worried about how they will affect my application even though I have experience.
 
Thanks!

Hey so_stressy. It's never too late to improve your GRE quant score. Since you're likely looking to make improvements to your GRE quant score in a short period of time, I'd recommend a focused approach to studying. To do well on the GRE Quantitative section, you don’t need to be a math genius — but you do need to have access to the best resources for GRE math prep!
Here's a link to a guide going over the pros and cons of 18 different study resources for the GRE. Hope this helps you!
https://www.prepscholar.com/gre/blog/best-gre-math-prep/