I am just applying myself right now so I only know what I have learned through this process, not from any directors directly. But , this is what I've learned from my experiences (only considering the 25 schools I am aplying to):
Two schools that I know of with minimum requirements are St. Louis and Loma Linda (1000 cum. on verbal and quant. and 4.0 on anal. writing).
There are another handful that require it, but don't list any minimum requirements: Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee, U. of Florida, Nebraska (these all want official score reports directly); there were many others that I called that said they accept scores reported to PASS, but since those aren't considered "official" I am guessing that it isn't as important to those programs.(???)
Now, about the score. I was told by an upperclassman that matched last year, that the "magic number" on the GRE is 1200 and 4.0. By magic number he said that it won't hurt your app at all with a score like that. I am sure that students have been accepted to programs with less than 1200, but if you score high it may help too. A resident at SLU wasn't in the the top 10% of his class, but he said he smoked the GRE and when he interviewed the director focused a lot on his GRE scores, so it appears that his high score helped him.
I am pretty sure that it doesn't matter at all for most certificate only programs, because the main reason the GRE is required is for the Masters that they give you.
Basically, if you want to better your chances, take the GRE. If you want to better your chances more, shoot for 1200/4.0. I don't know where you go to school, but it may just be a formality at your program and the director couldn't care less what you score or he feels that you will do well enough taking it cold.
My personal experience: bought a book, studied pretty hard (~40-60 Hours - very rough estimate), took the test 12 hours after our first child was born and wife still in hospital and scored a 1310 and 5.0 (my goal was 1200 and 4.0)
If you remember math well and can memorize words pretty quickly, you should be able to score well with less study time than me and may want to take it cold after at least taking some practices just to orient yourself and get the timing down. I think that this is quite an exhaustive answer to your short question, but I hope that it helps. 😴
