I passed the CEHv5 on 3/20. My studying lasted about two months off and on. I read the Official CEH book by Graves. While it was a good introduction into the material I felt it really lacked the depth required to pass the test. I also read Exam Prep by Michael Gregg, which blew the Official CEH away on all levels. It has the technical depth and easy to read examples that really helped me pass the test. The crypto chapter was especially good. I wish I had that material for the CISSP.
I also watched the Career Academy CBTs. Good explanations and review of older material which was helpful. It seemed like he was reading off the screen, which was distracting. This course is much better than the crap CBT Nuggets which I previewed. CBT Nuggets instructor was like a used car salesman. I did not appreciate his unethical jokes and comments. He stated that there are no white hats, only gray hats, because you cannot test all your security tools and ask permission of the system owner.
Additional materials was the CEH flashcard
Flashcards, which were very useful for testing. Much better than the CCCure.org test database (
Free practice exams for the CISSP, CISA, SSCP, GSEC- cccure.org - Bringing Education to the World). Wile there is a wealth of material for CISSP, I seemed to remember the actual CEH test having more than 19 questions as represented in the test engine. No offense to Clement over at CCCure.org, but his pen testing site isn't as popular as the main site.
