What was the hardest easiest cert and vice versa?

DatabaseHead

I'm sure we have heard of a certification being easy and then wham, failed or at least struggled. Vice versa, a hard certification that EVERYONE fails and you just aced it.

Just curious.....

I'd say for me Project + was hard lol. I heard it was a joke and I'd blow through it and ended failing it...... The next time I barely passed it....

ITIL OSA was pretty easy. I heard it was tough etc.... I practically aced it.

I'd like to read your thoughts.

josephandre

I had some friends that told me CEH was pretty difficult, but it was arguably the easiest cert I ever took

I somehow went about 5 years only taking the first half of A+ but believing I had completed it. When I started WGU they told me that I had never taken the second test, so I was like no biggie, I'll breeze right through it. WRONG. It was extremely difficult for me lol


Few people at work have RHCSA, and at least one that I don't consider particularly sharp or great test takers. None seemed to put much pressure on me as I was studying and I assumed it would be maybe not 'easy' but not overly difficult. Boy I bombed that sucker. Only test I've ever failed. It was .... tough.

CISSP was neither easier or harder than various people told me.

jamshid666

I drug my feet for 3-4 years to take the VCP-DCV exam because of how brutal everyone said it was and I didn't want to spend the money for a failure. After working with it on a daily basis at work for several years, and getting the voucher from Stanly CC so it didn't cost so much, I finally took it. I scored a 493 out of 500, so I only missed one or two questions, depending on how they are weighted.

As far as the hardest easiest one for me it was NT 4.0 Workstation. I easily passed every other NT 4.0-era MCSE exam, but that one was my Achilles heel, I failed miserably the first time, and just barely scraped a pass out of the second. That exam taught me humility and the importance of not letting over-confidence get in the way of properly studying.

jamshid666

josephandre wrote: »

Few people at work have RHCSA, and at least one that I don't consider particularly sharp or great test takers. None seemed to put much pressure on me as I was studying and I assumed it would be maybe not 'easy' but not overly difficult. Boy I bombed that sucker. Only test I've ever failed. It was .... tough.

I loved the Red Hat exams, the hands-on format was fun. As far as being tough, we had one person that used to be in our office that failed it like five times. That's really expensive to have not passed after that many attempts. And our employer only reimbursed testing if you passed, so he ate all of those failures.

yoba222

#2 hardest was the A+.
I think mostly because it was my first cert.

#1 hardest was the LFCS.
It was difficult, the exam lab is finicky, the study materials out there aren't stellar, and even the exam objectives aren't clear.

Easiest was the CCNA.
I studied just as long and intensely as for the LFCS, but there is a ton of great study resources out there to use, so I really ended up over studying for it.

TechGuru80

CISSP was hard because I took the old format and 6 hours / 250 questions is a long time to focus.

CCNA:Security was hard only because when I took it the margin of error was very small in order to pass.

Network+ was the easiest exam I have taken...from the looks of it the exam seems more challenging for entry level people now though.

rwmidl

Hardest was the old format CISSP (scantron, 6 hours, 250 questions - brutal!).

Easiest, I would say CISM. Mostly because I had my CISSP for a while and I found a lot of overlap.

Danielm7

I didn't find the CISSP as hard as I was mentally prepared for, mostly because there was years of data of people saying that the questions are crazy tricky and prepare to have your mind blown. So you go in with that mindset and then you read the question and know the answer, then it doesn't feel as bad.

One of my coworkers, has done the CCIE, failed one of the MCSA exams over and over, almost dropped out of WGU over it. He had books everywhere, was studying like crazy. He could answer more complicated AD questions than our Sr sysadmins, but somehow the test just broke him. I think he only got through it because the school changed the format or something similar.

KitH151

Hardest - OSCP. Spent probably 300+ hours working on it. To me it was a very different way of thinking. Putting systems together is easy; figuring out how break them not so much.

Easiest - All the AWS Associate level certs. Finished all three within 3 weeks. I did have a year of experience working in AWS professionally and had learned a lot/made a ton of mistakes at that point.

sunto

OSCP is fairly difficult, but not always for difficulty's sake. Criticisms aside, it's a worthy technical opponent that requires a lot of self-service learning.

CISSP is just a mountain of knowledge, but not necessarily easy or hard. I'll try to knock out CISM this summer.

beads

Easiest - Security+, 31.5 minutes. ITIL Foundations in 11 minutes.

Hardest - CCNP (Security). Because I was didn't study enough and had to work through the exam instead of floating through as usual.

YMMV

- b/eads

TeKniques

This thread should be all over the board ...

Easiest: A+

Hardest: OSCE

Ertaz

Easiest? CSA+(CySA+ now). Showed up drunk and passed it for $50.
Hardest During the exam? Eh, My Windows XP exam. I never took a practice test for it, just read through the study guide once. I was way over-confident. Made the exact passing score. I felt like a boxer whose opponent was just holding him up on the rope toying with him.

DatabaseHead

Ertaz wrote: »

Easiest? CSA+(CySA+ now). Showed up drunk and passed it for $50.
Hardest During the exam? Eh, My Windows XP exam. I never took a practice test for it, just read through the study guide once. I was way over-confident. Made the exact passing score. I felt like a boxer whose opponent was just holding him up on the rope toying with him.

I wish I could pass all my reps to you!

ThePawofRizzo

Easiest for me was probably Network+. I took it right when it first came out, as I had just started in IT, had earned A+, and was in the midst of studying for the TCP/IP networking exam for MCSE 4.0. I figured, "While I'm studying Microsoft I'll take a side trip to the new Net+". I think I only missed one question, and at the time there wasn't much material to study from specific to Net+, so my Microsoft studies had been helpful.

Hardest was probably CCNA. I wasn't working with Cisco equipment much...and still have only limited experience with it. I was taking it as I was new-ish to IT, and trying to get exposure to more in-depth network stuff. I passed, but it was a toughie. Oddly, I took CCDA a couple months later, expecting it to be difficult, and it was not as challenging a test for me.

I've failed a couple exams in my time, notably NT Workstation 4.0. But those haven't been necessarily that the tests were hard, moreso my overconfidence that I didn't need to study much...and then being humbly reminded while taking the test that I was not prepared. Seems I took NT 4.0 Workstation after I'd earned MCSE NT 4.0, so I figured, "Hey, I got through these other exams, this one is a client exam. I got this!" Then, the exam asked a bunch of questions about deployment and installing that I hadn't really read over, and while I didn't just completely bomb the exam, I got enough of those types of questions that my score was just under passing. I licked my wounds, and took the test again a couple weeks later and passed.

EANx

I think people are moving away from the intent of the post, which I see as "hardest easy" exam and "easiest hard" exam.

For me, the hardest easy exam was the CCNA. There was too much marketing that I couldn't keep straight. Out of the three CCNP exams, I had one miss but missed on on the CCNA because of the greater focus on "Cisco is great".

The easiest hard exam was the CISSP. I had passed it in 2007 and when 2010 came around, I was overseas and mired in personal issues. There was no way I was going to get the CPEs done in time (three years in CPEs were due) so I studied for 10 hrs and blew through the exam in a little over an hour. Since, they changed the way CPEs are done and I've been careful to get mine done on time.

rcsoar4fun

Hands down the hardest was some CWI exam I took for WGU. Whoever wrote that was mentally defective or illiterate or both.

Easiest was probably CCIE written. I was well prepared and the exam questions were straight forward. (What do you need to know for CCIE? Everything.)

Most stressful was my CISSP. Old paper test and took it with a bunch of coworkers. I finished in a pretty quick time. Then I had to listen to a number of coworkers talk about how difficult it was and how they barely had time. So I spent 5 weeks wondering if I needed to prepare to retake it. I did not.

NOC-Ninja

hardest and the most expensive will be the CCIE.
easiest CCNA-Sec

JoJoCal19

EANx is correct, people are mis-reading the threads intent.

For me the hardest easiest cert was the CEH. I don't know why but my first two attempts I was short 1 and 2 points respectively. It was probably hubris.

The easiest hard cert for me was any of the CISSP/CISM/CISA/CRISC. So many people fail, and some multiple times, but the CISSP exam seemed so easy and the answers just stuck out for me, after two weeks of concentrated study. For the ISACA certs, they didn't seem as easy as the CISSP, but I cleared all three exams in 42 days after just doing the QAE DB for about two weeks each. Maybe they were all easy due to experience

jcundiff

rcsoar4fun wrote: »

Hands down the hardest was some CWI exam I took for WGU. Whoever wrote that was mentally defective or illiterate or both.

Same here, I hate the SOB LOL... failed it, still have to retake to pass the course.

Easiest "Hard" exam for me was CRISC... 4 hours? nah, hour and 15 minutes on scantron... with a generous 10-15 minutes of look over and make sure every row has an answer. When I handed my score sheet in to the proctor and started to exit the room, I heard someone (probably CISA or CISM candidate) gasp, "Oh my God, he's done alreay" :O

Hardest for me was the CISSP, old format 6 hour (took 4.5) 250 questions... took almost 5 minutes to get the courage up to flip the score sheet over (bastards hand it to you facedown) to see if I passed... my head still hurts

jcp1856

Ertaz wrote: »

Easiest? CSA+(CySA+ now). Showed up drunk and passed it for $50.
Hardest During the exam? Eh, My Windows XP exam. I never took a practice test for it, just read through the study guide once. I was way over-confident. Made the exact passing score. I felt like a boxer whose opponent was just holding him up on the rope toying with him.

lmao wow never heard of someone showing up drunk to take an exam.

hardest: OCA 1z0-821. totally bombed it (scored 34% passing is 64%). I think part of the problem is that there seems to be a lack of decent study materials

easiest: ITIL Foundations

jcundiff

jcp1856 wrote: »

lmao wow never heard of someone showing up drunk to take an exam.

I did for the ACT way back in the day, since it was in town (lived in the sticks) my parents let me stay with a friend the night before, big mistake... we had been up partying most of the night, was hung over the next morning, so we downed a pint of jim Beam between us and went and took the ACT... I got a 25, he got a 24 (old scoring scale, was late 80s )

Ertaz

jcundiff wrote: »

Hardest for me was the CISSP, old format 6 hour (took 4.5) 250 questions... took almost 5 minutes to get the courage up to flip the score sheet over (bastards hand it to you facedown) to see if I passed... my head still hurts

When they handed me my score sheet and it was two pages I almost fell out. I had read on here while researching before the exam that if they gave you two pages that you failed because the second page was your detailed output in each of the domains. A single page was your congratulations message. I took my two sheets away from the printer and finally mustered up the courage to look. The print area was set wrong on the printer, the footer from the first page went over onto the second.

umarbhatti

I might be misreading this thread but the hardest i always find is the exam you are currently studying for, easiest is the ones you have passed.

For me easiest was ITIL, hardest was CCNA R&S.

Burns82

hardest exam is the one you are not interested in.

rcsoar4fun

jcundiff wrote: »

Same here, I hate the SOB LOL... failed it, still have to retake to pass the course.

If it makes you feel any better, they don't even send you a paper certificate, just a PDF. There is a joke about the paper it is printed on somewhere.

jvrlopez

Easiest - LPI Linux Essentials - It's not actually a certification, but rather, a certificate of accomplishment (if that makes sense). The questions were laughably easy, and if it wasn't for NDA and all that, I'd have a few jokes to share. I read through the All in One book (love those) once straight through in a week and knocked it out. Considering I worked in an all linux environment for work at the time, the time, money, and time off from work spent on it was not worth it. At the least, it gives people reviewing my resume an idea that I indeed know some Linux...we had a lot of candidates use blanket MS/Linux OS experience statements on their resumes that couldn't back that up (one candidate claimed 10 years of Linux experience but couldn't name their favorite Linux text editor!).

Hardest - CCNA - Not hardest in the sense of grasping the knowledge...the material isn't way out there, it's just that I hate the fact that there are hands on labs on the test. Those always drive me nuts and make me paranoid. I much rather spend my time studying and sitting CISSP than to bother with CCNA again.

Easiest Hardest - CISSP - Go look at my thread way back in 2014. I put in some serious hours on that bad boy and was even at the point of dreaming of and thinking about the CISSP CBK in the shower. Sat the exam and almost busted out laughing during a restroom break at how easy it was coming along. 4 of my coworkers had just failed the exam the previous quarter and a lot of the feedback I got was how difficult it was. Didn't feel that way.

Hardest Easiest - Funny when I look back on it, but Security+. It took me 3 attempts...1 no show (I clicked the wrong date and didn't catch it), 1 failure, and finally a pass. I was working nights at the time and couldn't bring myself to study when I got home. After the failure (and a very angry wife), I finally sat down and committed to it.

DatabaseHead

jvrlopez wrote: »

Easiest Hardest - CISSP - Go look at my thread way back in 2014. I put in some serious hours on that bad boy and was even at the point of dreaming of and thinking about the CISSP CBK in the shower. Sat the exam and almost busted out laughing during a restroom break at how easy it was coming along. 4 of my coworkers had just failed the exam the previous quarter and a lot of the feedback I got was how difficult it was. Didn't feel that way.

I've heard this on several occasions. The few people who I know person to person have stated this very thing.

Scan For Security

I think CEH is the easiest one, 125 questions, 75% to pass, no real practical tasks. I was even so bored that have created actual v9 "Questions + Answers" document, remembered all questions and answers after exam, he-he

SteveLavoie

Easiest.. Network+. In 2005, they had a free Beta, but I saw it the 1-2 days before the end of the beta. So I registered for the exam for the next days, at that time, the exam center was in the same building as my work. I brushed up the material, and did the exam just before going to work. I passed easily. No stress, there was no cost involved, no commute.

Hardest... VCP- Desktop Virt, I wasnt 100% ready, it was at VMware Partners conf in Vegas, between 2 sessions. I failed it by a few points. A lot of question that I said to myself.. WTF...

And no.. CISSP is not the hardest one.

Mooseboost

Easiest for me is a tie between the Network+ and Security+ exams. I took both of these cold and on a whim back to back because my employer as paying for them at the time. I had been working in IT for quite some time already doing a mix of networking and security so the questions aligned with my experience. I passed both and it changed my opinion on CompTIA. Before then I thought their exams were a waste of time but after taking a couple of them I agree that they are very well rounded entry level exams.

Hardest... Definitely the OSCP. I haven't fully conquered that beast yet. No other exam I have taken has touched the level of difficulty the OSCP has offered. The CEH is a complete joke compared to it.