Adwords Fundamental Exam Experience

Last night, after a long day of review, I passed the Google Adwords Fundamentals Exam.  I had a feeling my normal reading/skimming pace would not be appropriate.  So over the last two weeks I spent at least ten hours reading the study materials provided by the Google Learning Center.  Afterwards I watched all of the e-learnings that accompany the study material.

At the advice of my professor, I then created a new Adwords account to re-familiarize myself with the process.  Classmates and friends who previously took the exam told me the language and location targeting questions were the most difficult.  I looked over these sections once more, had a quick snack, turned off the Davis/Coltrane Pandora, took a deep breathe, and began the test.

I got the test app to start just fine.  I was off.  A little daunting to see see "1 of 120" in the upper corner.  After I hit about 40 I felt like I was in a groove and relaxed a bit.  I finished my first pass with about an 45 minutes left.  I then went back and checked over the questions that I had marked (this was a nice feature of the exam app).  After looking over the dozen or so questions I submitted my answers with about one minute left.

I was fairly happy with my score, though my reach goal was to match my professor.  Maybe on the Analytics portion.  A lot of the questions you had to choose the "best answer."  The trickiest portions were indeed on language and location.

I feel I previously learned about 80% of the material that I was tested on.  The last 20% were things that I learned while studying or was made clearer in the process.

To anyone planning on taking the exam I would focus on the following:

1. Have previous Adwords experience.
2. Read the study materials, really READ.
3. Watch the e-learnings, they helped summarize the concepts.
4. Re-read the non-conceptual sections (rules about targeting and access).
5. Take your time on the exam and use the "Mark" feature to recheck answers.

Good luck to anyone who takes the exam!  I'm planning on taking the Analytics section later this summer.  My goal is 20 hours of studying for that exam.  I'll let you know how it goes.