Just a bit of advice for what it's worth. I read this thread too and was discouraged. So, I took the test very seriously and passed all the sections the first try. I saw a wee bit of issues, but nothing that you can't work with. It didn't seem to me that it was designed to do anything besides make sure you truly know the material. As an encouragement, I've only been using QuickBooks in any way, shape, or form since July or August, and I only have 2 clients, so I have minimal experience (I'd only ever done my own books - no one else's and started these clients with the understanding that I know nothing and am learning as I go - I didn't go to school for this or anything). So surely if I passed it this way, someone else could easily! That being said, here's what I did:
I went through all the self-paced training once. I'm not sure why, but when I chose Advanced Training as a "Personalized Path", it didn't quite give me everything. So, I went directly to the training library to make sure I covered all my bases. You can see which lessons apply to the Advanced Certification exam by the badge with the darker green stripe (or lack thereof) located beside the amount of time it's estimated to complete that lesson. When I went through the self-paced training, (I know this might seem tedious - but not as much as taking the training time and again or sitting through lengthy webinars), I copy and pasted all the training material into Word documents. I calculated my time in doing this, and it I consistently finished copying, pasting, saving, and actually doing the lessons with one minute to spare vs. the estimated time. (If you don't use many keyboard shortcuts, I would recommend learning them, they save quite a bit of time). On my computer, I made a folder for QuickBooks Online Advanced Certification. I also made subfolders for each of the main topics. For instance: "Sales and Customers", "Expenses and Vendors", etc. In each of those subfolders, I saved the corresponding Word documents, such as "Billable expenses", "Billable time", "Using delayed charges in QuickBooks Online", etc. I like to include the "Topics" list right under the title of each section in the Word documents - I found it helpful as a sort of index for finding what I needed when it came to doing the exam questions. I think it's extremely helpful to do this for reference during the test, but most importantly, I now have my own complete set of organized training materials on my computer that I can reference back to whenever I face one of these scenarios in my day-to-day work. I think this is nice, especially since some of these scenarios aren't ones I face regularly, so I can easily forget what the best way to do some of these tasks is - this way, I don't have to remember every little thing. (I'm attaching a screenshot of the beginning of one of these documents to show what I did)
After going through all the training this way, I next decided a strategy for taking the test. I was seeing complaints about people losing their progress in the test if something happened and they weren't able to review and submit their answers at the end of each module. I decided to use this feature to my advantage. Again, this is very time consuming I know, but I think it was worth it. I would recommend starting the Module 1 test. Once inside the test, I took a screenshot of each question and pasted it on a Word document. I just gave any answer (I didn't actually even read the questions at this point) just to go on to the next question. I DID NOT SUBMIT MY ANSWERS AT THE END OF THE MODULE. Instead, I went out of the exam and went back in again. I copy and pasted the questions from each time until I had gone into the exam ~5-7 times (depending on the module - the more questions each module has, the bigger bank of questions there seemed to be to choose from).
Then I split my screen with another Word document. In this screen, I numbered and typed out each question (if the question was some long situation followed by a question, I just typed the beginning of it, enough to differentiate it from any similar questions). When I came to a duplicate problem (because each time you go into the test, you get some of the same questions, but not all the same), I deleted the screenshot of that problem out of the document full of screenshot questions and did not type the repeated question in my document with the list of questions. When I was done, I had two documents: one with screenshots of each exam question, the other just a list of possible questions. Most of the time I went in and out of each module exam enough to stop getting any new questions. Then I knew I had gotten a complete (or almost) list of all the possible questions for that module. I saved those documents as: "Module 1 Exam Questions" and "List of Possible Module 1 Questions", etc.
Next, I focused on doing the "exam". Not the actual exam, but my document with all of the screenshots of all the possible exam questions. So instead of 15-18+/- questions, you might have 32-45+/- depending on the particular module. Again, I split my screen with this document on one side and, on the other side of the screen, I put whichever document had the training material I needed for the question I was on. I thoroughly marked up my "exam" by crossing out the wrong answers and checking the right ones. I highlighted key words in the question and answers. Whenever I found something in my training documents to verify or disprove a particular answer, I took a screenshot of that part and pasted it underneath the question in the exam question document until I had made sure I knew and had proof of the answer to every question the exam could have.
I only ever got really impatient with a few answers. In Module 5 there was one question I couldn't find the answer to anywhere...so I came up with another strategy to deal with questions like that. When it came time to take my actual exam, I decided to go into the exam and answer the questions - which didn't take long, because I'd already done this in my document and was fairly familiar with all the questions now. However, if I came across a question that I wasn't completely sure about the answer, I went out of the exam and started over until I didn't have that question on the exam. Another thing about taking the actual exam: I opened the "List of Possible Module # Questions" off to the side; this way, I could scroll through this compact list so that I could see at a glance, "this question is at the top of my exam questions document" or "this one's at the very bottom" without having to scroll through the massive document I had accrued in marking up the document of screenshots of exam questions (35 pages on some).
Something doesn't work right (I don't know if it's on my end or on their end) with the recorded webinars, so I could only ever view one. I didn't get the PDF handouts from it, so I signed up for a live one. Since I live out in the sticks, I only have Wi-fi, and it's not that wonderful, so when I sign up for a webinar, I can't actually see or hear anything...except the handouts. I did download those for the first couple of modules...I was going to do all of them, but I got impatient so I took my test before the date came around for the webinars and it turns out I didn't need them, but I think it would be helpful for extra reference material.
I got impatient with Module 5 - I had company coming soon and wanted to be done with this. So, I didn't quite follow my own plan very well and ended up with an 83? (I think that was it anyway?), everything else was in the 90's or 100. So I feel like this way is very effective.
For some of the questions, I found answers in the Community. For some questions, I used the demo company and just tried out whatever it was asking. For some, I checked it out in my company or my clients' companies - wherever I could find the answer! (Obviously, only things that would not affect their books).
I wondered for a bit whether my strategies were ethical, but I really think they helped me to learn the material much better than any other way I could think of. I feel like I'm much more equipped to do advanced work in QuickBooks Online - which is the whole point!
Wishing you and whoever else all the best in your attempts. If I can clarify something let me know!
(And sorry for being so long-winded!!)
