Passing CEH in November

wager3rw

I thought that I would share my experience after taking the CEH exam today since there is all this talk about v8 and v9. I took the 312-50 Exam and passed with an 80%. About 6 months ago I decided I was going to take the exam and purchased Walkers AIO guide. I read it once and didn't touch it until about three weeks ago, which is when I really started to study for the exam. At the same time I purchased the Boson exams. I wasn't just scoring 100's on the Boson exams, I knew and understood the content like the back of my hand. Giving additional back ground information, I have experience in system administration and security working in a healthcare environment and hold some other entry level certs such as the A+, Net+, Sec+, HIT along with a college degree. I've also taken numerous security classes in accordance with my degree and I'm passionate about both Linux and programming/scripting which I believe helps in this realm.

The Matt Walker AIO is still a valid study source. A good majority of the questions were concepts covered in the book. Nothing really changed. I read a lot of posts on this forum, and frankly, people put doubt in my mind. I honestly thought I was walking into a trap and going to fail... That is until I completed the first 20 or so questions. There were a few that fell outside the scope of Walkers AIO book but nothing major. If you don't know what Stuxnet, POODLE, ShellShock, Heartbleed, or other vulnerabilities that have been released lately, then security might not be the industry for you. You need to stay current with the latest threats regardless if you are taking an exam or not.

The best advice I can give is to not memorize concepts, but try to understand them....

danny069

Congrats! Thanks for the write up. I am schedule to write this in December sometime.

balcobulls

I passed my CEH today as well with a 71! lol....they probably will just send me a good job post-it note instead of the cert. Oh well, at least I passed. I completely agree with Wager3rw, you can't just buy a couple books, memorize stuff and then expect to pass. You really need to know the ins and outs of a lot of stuff. Let's just say I know exactly where my weaknesses fall....in about 29% of what I thought I knew.

OctalDump

Congrats.

You are just one person, but what you are saying matches well with what I thought. If you had broader experience to start with, then the exam shouldn't be too much of a struggle. It's a 30% buffer that they give you, so a few stray questions shouldn't mean failure.

I'd be curious to hear from more people who've passed about what their experience is with the "new" exam.

wager3rw

@balcobulls - a pass is a pass. Nice job. Did you complete the 2 year exp. waiver or take one of EC-Coucils classes?

@OctalDump - There were a few other questions pertaining to Risk Assessments and crunching ALE's that were not in Walkers book, but these are topics I work with regularly at my workplace and were covered in the Sec+ exam... I was surprised not to see any questions that involved subnetting. With a fundamental knowledge of the major tools (nmap, tcpdump, Nessus, etc), you can easily eliminate a few answers right off the bat and improve your chances.

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!

tomatotux

This gives me a load of hope. I worked as a sysadmin in a linux shop when shellshock and heartbleed came out so I had to stop them. My exam is scheduled for the 5th and I'm studying the AIO and gearing up. Thanks for the hope man!

Sch1sm

You'll be fine. People who are now aware the exam is different have time to prepare, the main issue was people going in expecting one exam and getting another. I wouldn't worry about it if you're familiar with the v8 material and have learned a few of the new v9 things.