C|HFI today, Again.

This was an ugly one. Yes I took the test today, I also took it on Thursday 9/8 as well. Long story short I thought I scheduled the test for 9/15. Thursday comes around an hour before the test I get the notification. A feeling of dread fell over me when I checked the email and was indeed scheduled to take the test at 11am that day. I had studied the EC-council books and the Official C|HFI Study Guide (Exam 312-49): for Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (9781597491976) for 2 months and had enjoyed the subject. Well 2.5hrs later I walked out of the testing center with a 67%. Passing is 70%. I admit some of the questions threw me off and there was some material that was not covered in those books.

Angry at the fact I failed, and by 2-3 questions no less, I went back to work and checked the retake requirements. Thankfully there are none. I proceeded to schedule the exam and pay for it out of pocket ($250) to retake it on Saturday 9/10. Having experienced the types of questions I re-focused my studies on some of my weak areas in anticipation of the upcoming exam. I went to bed around 5am Saturday and woke at 9:30am. My test was at 11am. I could not sleep and waking up after 4hrs sleep was hard. I was dragging for the first hour knowing full well if I sat down or stopped moving I would most likely fall back to sleep. I made it to the test center on time and 3 shots of espresso seemed to be doing the job. Thankfully there were no hiccups during the test and everything went smoothly. This exam is 150 questions with a 4hr time limit. I got to the point where I had answered every question and was going back and rechecking my answers. This is normally a bad thing for me to do as I tend to second guess myself. Happy with everything I end the test. After what seems like an eternity of waiting for the results the exam proctor comes in asking if everything is ok. I told him I was waiting on my score to show up on the screen. He handed me my score report and told me I passed. I swear not 5 seconds later it showed up on the screen. I scored an 87%.

Relieved with the pass I went to my parents house to share the good news and pick up my father before heading to the range. I taped the failing score report to a target and put 100 rounds of 45acp through it. The remnants are taped to my wall as a reminder to pay closer attention to when tests are scheduled.

Does anybody else do something like this after they pass a test they previously failed? Curious if anybody else has any rituals for destroying the failing score report and if they would like to share.

Now back to CCNA studies and the ICND2 exam in T-minus 51 days.