Yuan4208

Take a walk during the intermission and clear your head from the past sections. If you've done well, your second half of the GRE should be a lot harder.

It's natural for your score to fluctuate. Your practice test should really give you a range instead of a precise score. As for how to improve, it really depends on what your weakness is. Did you come across a lot of words you didn't recognize? Were you having challenges reading the articles? Did you feel like you got all the questions right but it turns out you didn't (in which case you've fallen into GRE's traps)? Or did you just not get used to the real test environment? Follow the 80/20 rule and focus on your greatest weakness and tackle that as hard as you can.

If you have time you should try again. Your overall GPA is balanced by your major GPA and your writing is good. Your verbal and quant are likely below average for top programs though. GRE is not the most important factor in admissions but you don't want to be kept out of the gate because of it either.

Power Prep 1: V163, Q166; Power Prep 2: V:165, Q170; Real Test: V166, Q170 When it comes to predicting scores, I tend to trust official materials more.

4.5 is typically about average for accepted students in most programs. AWA typically doesn't carry as much weight as Verbal/Quant sections so no need to worry at all. Congrats on nailing the verbal section!