From the forums otherwise known as the virtual nightclubs and bars of the Internet, come words written by actual test takers in the process of testing, folks who have already passed, those who failed and folks who are scared witless and virtually drinking to build their courage to get started in The Learning Center.

We will skip the terrified and focus on three test takers who actually took the plunge. We will keep the names of these folks secret to protect the innocent as we drop pearls of wisdom, screams of anguish and everything in between about this formidable exam. We offer three different perspectives on the exam: one person who passed on his first attempt, one person who failed and a guy who was just ranting about the lack of toughness of the test scoring in general.

Mr. X stated the following:

"As far as it being difficult, I managed to pass first time only 3 weeks after first learning what PPC was and I'm no genius. I scraped through, but it isn't rocket science. Go through the tutorial, make notes and you should be ok." – Mr.  X

Mr. X makes a valid point. Go through the tutorials and makes notes. This is a really good way to be successful your first time out. He said that he scraped by. Nobody remembers if you pass by 1% or 25%, just the fact that your logo is there.

Mr. Blue didn't tell us if he passed or failed; however, he ranted a bit about the lack of difficulty in passing the test. I guess Mr. Blue didn't know Mr. X who "scraped by" at the 75% pass rate. He probably wouldn't hire him in any case.

Mr. Blue had the following to say:

"If I was Google, the passing score would be a lot higher. Scores of 75% mean that twenty five percent of the time the test taker was wrong. Why should I allow someone with 75% or less on this exam to manage my PPC budget? The title awarded is "Adwords Professional"... that means "expert" if you are using other people's money. If the required score was 90% - or higher lots of people would work a lot harder and become even smarter about adwords . . ." Mr. Blue

Mr. Blue went on and on, obviously upset by the fact that the Google AdWord Professional Exam was too easy to pass. He may be a rocket scientist on this point.

Mr. Red crashed and burned leaving us to wonder if Mr. Blue is out of his tree when it comes to being a professional but then again, Mr. Red does have trouble with grammar, punctuation, spelling and capitalization. Mr. Blue might have a point. I don't think I would go with somebody who posted something this poorly constructed. This is advertising through word smith mastery, after all.

"I failed with 68%..., it was stupid because at the 54 th question i thoughted that i have no chance. So get an copy of each question to study latter. I know the questions will be diferent, but with an example it´s easier to know what are the questions about.

When i finished and get 68%, i thougted that if i have revised instead coping the question, maybe i pass." – Mr. Red

One good point Mr. Red made was that you would want to keep the questions for later. While this is a good idea, with 1.5 hours to get through it, one really wouldn't have time to cut and paste the questions while trying to take the test. There are, however, sample questions available in the Learning Center so he was on the right track and if he'd been in the Learning Center more, he might have found the sample questions and passed, too.

Well, there you have it, three different perspectives on the exam. Take if for what it's worth. Points to bear in mind from these real-world examples includes the following: study a lot, take quizzes, take notes, ranting about how it's too easy afterwards is a good hobby and if you are going to post in a forum about how you failed, run your spell checker prior to posting your copy. Lastly, if your goal is to pass the Google Professional Advertising Exam, don't give up. It's doable and possible, and like the driving test, you can take it until you pass.