I used to do it. I don't get certified anymore, because Google provides me no real incentive to do so. It's still fairly easy to game and when it comes down to it, it's a piece of paper.

You know how you get ppc work? Participate in forums like this (and elsewhere) and provide solid, authoritative help and answers for people who ask. Not specific, of course, just general. Don't troll for business, because if you know what you're doing and you're willing to help people, you'll be beating them off with sticks.

(That's just my take; others have differing opinions of course)

The qualifying process helped me improving my skills because many features I hadn't heard about before were touched. The $ 50 were good investment for what I gained in insight. I would call the qualifying a paid seminar for a quick start although you should have basic knowledge if you like to get real use out of it.

I should probably have mentioned that i'm currently employed as a digital marketing exec for independent music label/distriibutor in the UK, not entirely happy, I have been in touch with few employment agencies and some of the positions have seen state "must be adwords qualified"

Hence my question and hopefully this post gives my orignal post some context.

Novus the testing I think as I have been studying myself for the test is done through another party. From what I have seen your timed, asked to do
certain functions, set up accounts, run reports, and so on. I am sure there are multiple test that keep it mixed up. The files I am studying now are not out of date but new
functions have been added to the mix so I will need to review these new features when I take it. Like anything else it just takes quite a bit of study time
practice and the desire. If your unhappy and want to move on and see your resume needs this to be added well time to go back to school.

It seems that a lot of the things that they test you for are not actually activities you perform on a daily basis just managing an account. They're more akin to what you'd be doing if you were running a SEM agency - setting up and running lots of accounts for multiple clients, and tinkering around with the guts of accounts more than tweaking the numbers and polishing the copy.

Novus: I cleared this exam twice when I was working for a company some 4 years back. Now I am not sure about the pattern of exam.

But from my experience its a tough exam or used to be.

When I appeared it was 120 questions to solve in 90 min.

Google Adwords have nice online tutorial which you can go through.

They also give you sample questions at the end of each chapter.

My opinion to prepare for the exam as follows:
1) You need to have hands on experience atleast a year or so.
2) You need to have spend atleast $1000 in period of 3 months or so. (this was earlier requirement not sure about current conditions.)
3) All questions in exam are based on real life situation and you have very less time for each question, so you should know Adwords in and out to understand and answer the question. (Only studying the material google is providing is not sufficient.)

Also check out the following requirements.
[adwords.google.com...]

[adwords.google.com...]

All the Best.

Thanks
Rajiv