Just passed Pentest

walterbyrd

I did better than I expected. When I submitted the exam, I did not feel confident I would even pass. But, I got 802 with a minimum passing grade of 750. I think the best you can get is 900.

The exam was more difficult than I thought it would be. I studied for months.

I read the "All-in-One" study guide. I does not come anywhere near covering everything you need to know to pass the exam. Much of my studying was looking stuff up online.

You need to know nmap, netcat, some metasploit, reverse shells.

Many of the questions were value judgements, i.e.: "considering these vulnerabilities, which would be the best to exploit."

For the first time, I took the exam at home online. It was a PITA. You have to take photos of yourself, your driver's license, and all around the room where you take the exam. You have to be on video and on microphone the entire time. You cannot have any scratch paper, you cannot leave for any reason.

While checking my answers, the system became unresponsive. It just hung. I managed to start a chat session with the support people, and they restarted it. But it was disquieting.

They give you plenty of time to take the exam. Like 3 hours. But it doesn't help. You either know it or you don't.

charismaticx

This is one of their better exams and well worth having. In my opinion it carries more weight than CEH. Hopefully, Pentest + will finally make it to the 8570 list this year. 

JDMurray

Yes, CEH is not actually a penetration testing exam or certification. CEH has a wider and more basic coverage of InfoSec topics (including pentesting), while Pentest+ has in-depth coverage of a very specific specialty in InfoSec.