The GRE isn't the most important part of the application, but it does count. 970 is pretty low i think for the AA program. If i were you I would take one of the GRE prep classes through princeton review or another company. they teach you techniqes to solve the questions even if you don't know the answers. i took it last summer and increased my score from a 1200 to a 1270. I was satisfied with the score increase.