Don't let yourself fooled by stories about miracles.
If you have a low GPA (bellow 3.55) and also medium Subject GRE scores,
you'll be hit, unless you prepare for it.

Universities tend to care too much for things that are measurable, like
marks and test scores. They're unwilling (or unable) to judge you like a 
person.

Exploiting such a singular event (GRE test) is the best thing the average 
GPA student can do. Filtering is often set based on GRE scores, maybe just
because other means are simply impossible to implement.

This is why perfect, bright students land in medium universities and those
who prepare just to take tests land in good ones, although they might be
medium individuals.

Thus my advice: NEVER SUBESTIMATE THE ABILITY OF OTHERS TO FAKE. never
subestimate the ability of others to get good scores. PREPARE STRONGLY FOR
THE TESTS AND GET HIGH SCORES (85%-95%). 

This is maybe the single most important fact to know about PhD admission.
If you get high scores everything is forgiven to you: application fee, GPA,
recommendation letters etc.

Another thing to consider is the GRE General Verbal section which you can
safely ignore, assuming you took a good TOEFL score (620-680).

take care.
this is serious.