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Personally I recommend Manhattan. If you have time, try the 8 books series -- i.e., the Strategy Guide. Out of those 8 books, 6 of them are for quant: algebra, fractions/decimals/percents, geometry, number properties, word problems, and data interpretation. They have excellent introductions and step-by-step explanations, so that you can understand the basics first, and then try working on the problems on your own. They also have tips/shortcuts -- crucial to GRE. If you don't have time, try the 5 lb. This one doesn't deliver those introduction -- it's question-based. But like the 8 books, it's separated into different topics, so you can tackle your weakest. I would think you can still do a lot in 4 weeks -- so don't give up just yet! -- though it does depend on your progress on verbal and AW.

At the time of writing my previous post I was thinking more about the latter scenario. The tone on Brown’s page seems to imply this, and I thought, OK, sounds a bit calculative. Anyway, I definitely agree with you on this, and I’ve been there: talking to professors outside the classroom, hoping to have conversations with those who have more experience in the field and know more than me. During those times I didn’t really know what philosophy is, and the idea of pursuing it further never crossed my mind. All I wanted to do was to, as you said, think more deeply about the issues that have a grip on me, and my good relationship with my supervisor arises from the thinking and the talking throughout undergrad. By “unintentional” I’m thinking along these lines. A low A+ (86-100)? Sorry, Australia has a different grading system. My final grade in that course was 88, and I got 88 for my paper. He also asked me whether I wanted to pursue philosophy further at the time. Interesting. Lukewarm, maybe, if a professor doesn’t know one and one’s work that well. But I would rather not think that a professor will write a bad letter. Surely he/she knows how important the letter is and won’t “screw it up,” so to speak? The big-name-personal-relations possibility you mentioned is quite likely — letters written by them could carry a heavier weight — though I must admit that I’m so far off the U.S. philosophy scene that I can barely grasp what this means in my case.

Take a look at Brown's "Application Advice" page here: https://www.brown.edu/academics/philosophy/application-advice Their advice under LoR isn't bad -- quite understandable -- but still, it makes me cringe a bit; because, well, it seems a bit fake: to intentionally foster some sort of close relationship with professors for a year or so, whom you know you will be very likely to ask for those letters when you apply for PhD. I'm on the same boat -- sort of, Bachelor in my case. I'm (very) close with my supervisor; she knows me and my work well, and I was in all her classes throughout undergrad; so that's good. I have taken one course with another philosophy professor; he gave me good grades for both of my term papers, but we never really talked and it has been almost a year; still, I think he'll remember me (I came up with my own essay questions and asked him about them -- I think very few, if any, in my class did that), and I'm planning to send him those papers to refresh his memory after I meet with him (soon). I'm still not sure whom I'm going to ask for the final letter, trying to decide between (1) one of my thesis markers, whose class I have never attended to and I don't think she even knows who I am, and (2) yet another philosophy professor, whose Level 2 (out of 3) class I have attended to and did OK in, and with whom I'm currently working as an assistant for a quasi-philosophy course. I'm more inclined towards (2) at this point, since he has a more comprehensive sense of who I am as a person and a bit of knowledge on my philosophical attitude/work. @Glasperlenspieler: any thoughts? I don't think you are over-stressing: some say LoRs are even more important than the GRE score, because they are a much better indication of your ability to do well in philosophy. That being said, remember that SoP and writing sample are two equally important components you have full control of!

Thanks @TruthInFiction (Yes, truth in fiction indeed, and may I add, about both the author and the world.) That's a good point: they will have something concrete to read. Part of me is suspecting my AW responses weren't written in the way ETS-markers prefer/want me to, though I guess they could have been a bit more elaborated. Also, 162-162-4 as a whole doesn't look that bad to me, and shouldn't make them less inclined to take a closer look at my application.

(Apologies for double-posting. This is my first (well, second) time posting here, so I'm unsure of the rules, and I want to get a wider perspective.) I plan to apply for PhD in Philosophy in the U.S. -- currently thinking about: Columbia, Chicago, Stanford, Virginia, Northwestern, Illinois, and Brown. Both my verbal and quant are 162, and I'm happy with them. But I just got my result for AW today -- 4, in the 59th percentile. (I was expecting at least a 4.5, as I'm quite good at writing papers -- rather bummed out at this point.) I'm not sure what to do. Should I retake the test, basically for the sake of getting a (slightly) better AW score -- even though of course, I would need to study for verbal and quant again? I know GRE is only a (less important) component of the application, and to be honest I would rather spend my time focusing on SOP and writing sample. But my worry is that a AW score of 4 seems to be a bit low, especially for Philosophy, where the average is close to 4.5.

I plan to apply for PhD in Philosophy in the U.S. -- currently thinking about: Columbia, Chicago, Stanford, Virginia, Northwestern, Illinois, and Brown. Both my verbal and quant are 162, and I'm happy with them. But I just got my result for AW today -- 4, in the 59th percentile. (I was expecting at least a 4.5, as I'm quite good at writing papers -- rather bummed out at this point.) I'm not sure what to do. Should I retake the test, basically for the sake of getting a (slightly) better AW score -- even though of course, I would need to study for verbal and quant again? I know GRE is only a (less important) component of the application, and to be honest I would rather spend my time focusing on SOP and writing sample. But my worry is that a AW score of 4 seems to be a bit low for Philosophy in particular.