GRE scores

[ostuberoes]

Hello all. I have a terminal MA in Linguistics and 7 years after graduating with a 3.4 (a public ivy, if it matters), I want to go and finish my PhD. My top choices are GMU and UMD. I am currently an adjunct in a modern language dept in a small liberal arts college in the South. I took the GRE at the beginning of the month, and got 164 V 144 Q (20% !) and 4.5 an. a 308 isn't bad. It isn't great, but if I had gotten say a 158 V and a 150 Q I'd probably be more relaxed about it; as things stand I am somewhat concerned.

I feel that I can defend my 3.4 GPA. I have a published book chapter and an article under review, I have several international conferences as well as some proprietary lines of research, and I am confident in the quality of my Letters of Recomendation, at least one writer of which is a Big Name. I have been in touch with faculty at the institutions I am interested in, and all have expressed interest in my work. I brought up the subject of my GRE's with one of them and they pointed out that applications are judged holistically. Nevertheless my score on the quantitative section of the GRE was very alarming.

While I feel it was not indicative of my ability to perform basic math, I did struggle with the format. I was unable to answer five questions before my time ran out, and I am confident that upon retaking the test I could improve my score. It seems then, that I should just retake the test. I hate to be a complainer and I understand that there will be some candidates who simply will retake the test without any hand wringing. I'm asking about it for two reasons. 1) It is quite expensive and time consuming, and I will have plenty to do at my teaching job being that it would be right at the end of the semester. 2) As poor as my score was, it was less than one standard deviation below average, while the verbal section was close to 2 above and the analytical writing was one above. While I feel confident I could easily improve my quant score, I am not sure if it would raise my total score by a meaningful margin.

I know no body can give any solid answers, and in a way, I feel like if I'm even asking I should just bite the bullet, pay for a month of Magoosh, and take the test again. If I thought that would cinch me a spot, I would spend the money and time no hesitation. What I am wondering if is a difference of 15 or so points on my quant scores would SIGNIFICANTLY improve my candidature, such that I should just spent the money and time (both of which I could use elsewhere. . . but who couldn't?)

Thanks for reading this wall of text and taking the time to offer any insight you might have.

[fuzzylogician]

We can't really answer this question for you, but I would worry less about departments accepting you despite the low score, which seems possible given that the other aspects of your application sound strong, and more about university-wide cutoffs that I bet you would not meet, if they exist. In such a case, your prospective department would have to fight for you, and there is no guarantee of success. So if you can find out if such cutoffs exist at your target schools, you should do that. And either way, it might just be easier to retake the test and fix this problem, so it doesn't hold you back. 

[ostuberoes]

Thanks for the feedback. I have elected to retake it.