i am new to adwords and trying to figure everything out. Currently i have my keywords based off of my seo keywords (the same keywords that generated some $$$ for me in the past) and have a few ad's up and well, testing . how can i view my "quality score" and what exactly is a quality score?
The quality score tells you how well your landing page meet your keyword. If your page is not in line with your keyword is "videocamera" and you sell lingerie in your page, the quality score must be low - 0/10. You can see your quality score with each keyword when you roll your cursor over your keywords in your AdWords account.
Your quality score is made up of a few things 1/ relevancy of your keywords to your averts (use lost of AdGroups with tight groups of keywords) 2/ relevancy of your advert and keywords to your landing page (maybe it's not a good idea for everyone to be directed to your home page) 3/ CTR (important one) the number of people who click your advert divided by the number of people who search your advert you can see your quality score for each keyword by hovering over the speach bubble under the status section. Send a PM or check adwords-advice if you need some more help
Even easier way to see your QS is to click on Filter and Views button near top right corner, just above the graph. Click Customize Column and make sure that Quality Score is checked. You won't have to hover over the speech bubble. As Adwords-Advice said, main QS component is CTR followed by relevance of your keywords to your ads to your landing page. Learn more by downloading the Adwords FAQ.
I suggest downloading the Adwords Editor as that will make it MUCH easier to see your QS. You can than sort by QS and see the QS for all of your kw's in one place. Plus, it's just good to get to know adwords editor