There is actually a thread near the top of this forum that has people listing their scores and how they did from an acceptance/rejection standpoint, often concerning the schools you are asking about.

http://archinect.com/forum/thread/122814938/graduate-program-decisions-2015

I've always said that it's not nessisary to do really well, but doing poorly will hurt you because it's a red flag, 144v and 3w is getting into that territory. You really should try to be at least be near the 50th percentile mark, which is around 150v, 152q, 4w. For some of the more selective schools will really help to have better, but none of them will necessarily overlook you if you just do "average" and the rest of your materials are good. The thread I posted supports that. The lowest score I see for Harvard was 152v, and Columbia was 147v.

Which is all to say, if your other materials are really good you have a chance at any of these schools, but your odds would probably be much better for some if you could bring those scores up to average or beyond.

@natematt

ah! Thank you , I think I missed that one..

If you can't memorize words, then start reading. Contextual hints help also and it might be easier to absorb. London Review of Books, New Yorker (on a good article), New York Review of Books, Arts & Letters Daily, these are freely accessible and use plenty of big-value GRE terms. There's always a way to gauge and narrow down the right answers from wrong and that's by applying reasoning. 

Going through readings should also help you sort out the writing part, the low score likely due to poor logical jumps and dangling thoughts (your post seems to hint at those areas).

@verticalgaze  Thanks for the information, I'll try to look for the readings.. As for the writing part, yes, I'm really terrible at writing.. but last month I've done better at TOEFL essay, I don't know if the GRE writing will act the same way as TOEFL writing..

I've never looked at the TOEFL before but they seem to merely be testing your ability to compose basic essays in English.

The GRE will ask for an argument, so you take a position and defend or argue against it. Forgot what the other one was but it was probably analyzing something. Reading viewpoint articles and trying to see how their rhetoric works would help. How they interpret events with reason or nonsense and whether you feel convinced at the end. Why were you convinced?

I wouldn't stress too much over the exam but improving analytical and reasoning skills will certainly go a long way in graduate studies and beyond. Design stuff aside, there's a lot of social and political and cultural issues to sort out and the wrong assessment of conclusion or argument presented can be disastrous. 

It's not hard to improve on Verbal. Get a few more questions right and you're likely in the 150s. Writing takes practice--the question bank is all online I believe so do quick drafts when time permits. At the very least frame the outline in mind so that even if you cannot type it all out in the time limit, make sure what's on-screen is still strong enough to score.

@verticalgaze : okay then.. I won't let english requirement become a major road block to me.. Well, I still got personal statement and portfolio to work on by...

Thanks anyway!