Passed CEH Failed Microsoft 70-642...

tpatt100

I passed the CEH today, was supposed to take it last month but kept putting it off, I was spending more time with the Backtrack 4 book I got. I really did not care for version 6 and I wish I had more time and studied for version 7. Reason was things I knew "now" for Windows was not like it "then" for XP and 2000 Server.

I kept arguing with the study guides for the CEH, was using the EC-Council books WGU gave me for the class. A lot of the tools in the books were obsolete, I would go online and the stuff was abandoned years ago. So what I did was I focused on the penetration methodology, created an outline for myself and did some research on what are more up to date tools that are used. I figured there are probably a dozen different ways to do a pen test but there is a common method to do it.

I focused on nmap, wireshark, tcpdump, nessus. I wanted to use this study time to at least learn how to use some of the tools more efficiently, I used tcpdump a lot on Checkpoint for work but I only dabbled in it for troubleshooting connection issues.

If you have an IT background and Security I think you will spend way more time studying "what" all the tools EC Council throws at you do vs actually learning "how" to use all the tools. I did not care for the official books because it seemed like they just threw everything at you line after line, a dozen tools with just a couple of sentences on what they are used for.

I did download the material that EC Council has that is used for the labs and ran those on WinXP vmware.

And I also failed Microsoft's 70-642 today. Was a very, very, very stupid mistake on my part. I got the free voucher from Dreamspark a couple of months ago, somebody posted a thread on it. I wanted to use the voucher before it expired or I forgot I had it so I scheduled it "far enough" in the future so I could do the CEH first. Well remember how I pushed off the CEH for a month or so? Well I pushed it on to the same Saturday as the Microsoft test which I totally forgot about. I sat down for the CEH today and I see a Microsoft Survey on the screen....s o b what are the odds...I checked my CEH schedule on the Prometric site and I registered for 70-642 through VUE.

I kinda was studying for it but not a lot. So I figured I might as well tough it out. I failed got a 620 something but I spent most of the time focusing on topics the questions were covering so I could study for the retake. After I bombed the 70-642 I took the CEH afterwards. I was in there for almost five hours, stomach growling, bladder bursting. I was not used to taking bathroom breaks for certs except my CISSP exam but since I was the only one there they said I could get up as much as I wanted.

Going to take the 70-642 again in two weeks, focusing on labs until then.

earweed

Congrats on the CEH.
Too bad about the 642 but now you know where your weak areas are in it.

N2IT

tpatt100 wrote: »

I passed the CEH today, was supposed to take it last month but kept putting it off, I was spending more time with the Backtrack 4 book I got. I really did not care for version 6 and I wish I had more time and studied for version 7. Reason was things I knew "now" for Windows was not like it "then" for XP and 2000 Server.

I kept arguing with the study guides for the CEH, was using the EC-Council books WGU gave me for the class. A lot of the tools in the books were obsolete, I would go online and the stuff was abandoned years ago. So what I did was I focused on the penetration methodology, created an outline for myself and did some research on what are more up to date tools that are used. I figured there are probably a dozen different ways to do a pen test but there is a common method to do it.

I focused on nmap, wireshark, tcpdump, nessus. I wanted to use this study time to at least learn how to use some of the tools more efficiently, I used tcpdump a lot on Checkpoint for work but I only dabbled in it for troubleshooting connection issues.

If you have an IT background and Security I think you will spend way more time studying "what" all the tools EC Council throws at you do vs actually learning "how" to use all the tools. I did not care for the official books because it seemed like they just threw everything at you line after line, a dozen tools with just a couple of sentences on what they are used for.

I did download the material that EC Council has that is used for the labs and ran those on WinXP vmware.

And I also failed Microsoft's 70-642 today. Was a very, very, very stupid mistake on my part. I got the free voucher from Dreamspark a couple of months ago, somebody posted a thread on it. I wanted to use the voucher before it expired or I forgot I had it so I scheduled it "far enough" in the future so I could do the CEH first. Well remember how I pushed off the CEH for a month or so? Well I pushed it on to the same Saturday as the Microsoft test which I totally forgot about. I sat down for the CEH today and I see a Microsoft Survey on the screen....s o b what are the odds...I checked my CEH schedule on the Prometric site and I registered for 70-642 through VUE.

I kinda was studying for it but not a lot. So I figured I might as well tough it out. I failed got a 620 something but I spent most of the time focusing on topics the questions were covering so I could study for the retake. After I bombed the 70-642 I took the CEH afterwards. I was in there for almost five hours, stomach growling, bladder bursting. I was not used to taking bathroom breaks for certs except my CISSP exam but since I was the only one there they said I could get up as much as I wanted.

Going to take the 70-642 again in two weeks, focusing on labs until then.

Gratz on the pass!

it_consultant

70-642 is a more challenging test then most MS tests, I thought the Enterprise Admin test was the hardest, it was also the only one I failed. You already took one version of this test for your MCSE, so you know you can pass it with proper preparation.