Well, Phil, it looks like you're already doing a great job with contributing to the "opaque, bureaucratic crap" in academia. I really don't need any counseling about how strenuous and difficult PhD programs can be. Got that from my profs at least once a week. They have actually been really honest and genuine. I'm sorry you've had a bad experience and have consequently resorted to trying to make people feel bad on gradcafe.com.
Others, thanks for the info about GREs. I appreciate it. It sounds like I should just put forth 100%, be confident in my work, and see what happens!