Passed CEH in mid-80s: my preparation plan

jose_rett · April 2016

I passed the CEH last week: mid-80s. I took three hours to complete the exam. My preparation included:

ITProTV. Took three key courses: CEH, Kali Linux and Metasploit. This gave me my CEH foundation with the necessary hands-on to feel confident about this subject. Sean-Phillip Oriyano was the instructor. I took detailed notes. I also downloaded the audio and re-listened to the lessons in the car with their app. The ‘Security Now’ discount code kept it affordable for me (google: ‘Security Now ITProTV’). I also built a lab in my home and mimicked most of what Oriyano did in the courses. Recommended.
CEHv8 Study Guide by Oriyano. This paralleled ITProTV’s CEH course. Recommended.
Matt Walker’s CEH Practice Exams, second edition. An excellent resource and question set. I took this six weeks before the exam and averaged in the low-70s. The best bargain of my preparation. Highly recommended.
Boson CEH Question set. I paid the $90 and got four 125 question exams. I took them one-to-three weeks before the CEH exam with the following scores in sequence: 69, 72, 78, 82. Boson has an exceptional question set with detailed explanations and appropriate hyperlinks for every question. After each exam, I reviewed every question whether I got it wrong or right. Boson has integrated the latest CEH material into their set, a big plus. Highly recommended.
NMAP 6 Cookbook by Marsh—I read it 3X.
Skillset. I answered 1,000 questions with an 85% average. The Boson and Walker question sets have superior quality and commentary. However, the Skillset questions did help and it’s a free resource.
CEH assessment test from the EC Council web site. In my experience, this was an exacting gauge of preparedness. I took it two weeks before the CEH and got nearly the same score as the actual exam.
Other. These all helped enough for a plug: Cybrary.it, HAK5, OWASP, SecTools, Krebs on Security, SANS, Security Now podcast, NIST, Wikipedia and TechExams (thank you everybody).

What was the single best resource from my experience? The Boson question set! After I built a foundation of CEH knowledge mostly from ITProTV courses, Boson got me ready for the exam.

This entire process took about five months. Perhaps I over prepared, but I didn’t want to fail a $600 exam. Plus, I learned a heap of stuff – a fun journey overall. I hope sharing my experience helps as you prepare.

636-555-3226 · April 2016

Thanks for the info, but I'm not sure your prep plan from the 80s would work too well now. I mean, I know EC-Council isn't the greatest on updating their materials (CEH may be an exception, I guess), but we're talking 30 years old at this point...... Did you buy your study guide at Radio Shack?

jose_rett · April 2016

Ha Ha, I scored in the mid-80s! Took the exam last week in the year 2016.

(What's Radio Shack?)

danny069 · April 2016

Congrats! LOL! Did they have certs back in the 80's? (no disrespect whatsoever I was born in the 80's) and Radio Shack was and still is the greatest store ever, for people who took the initiative and used their brains to fix things rather than replacing the whole thing. I love my 80's best decade ever!!!!

cyberguypr · April 2016

Congrats! My immediate thought also was "Hey, this guy passed CEH in 1985".

datacomboss · April 2016

jose_rett wrote: »

(What's Radio Shack?)

Used to be the greatest store ever. I can see what's left of their world headquarters outside my window.

Passed CEH in mid-80s: my preparation plan

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