CEH v8 Study Frustrations!

Khaos1911

Excuse my forthcoming rant, but here it goes...

So I have access to the official v8 study material and there is just no way...no way that all this is going to be covered on a 125 question exam. Like the Chapter 13 hacking web application module is 263 slides and the rest of the 19 to 21 or whatever modules average out at about a 150+ slides per module with a couple more modules having 200+ slides.

Like, I get that EC Council wants us to know all of this stuff and that's great, but I want to know exactly what to study for the CEH exam and everything else that's just good to know for my security career I can continue reading up on along the way. And there is no way they are testing us on all these tools? It's like 15+ tools per module.

Any of you who have taking CEH V7 or V8 please provide some insight and let me know what I should be studying for. I would highly appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

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emerald_octane

Some of the tools are covered in the included iLabs. You will be expected to know them. Some may be "what tool is _____ used for?" Another question may be given tool X, what does switch Y accomplish?

I typed the iClass notes for a few of the modules and there aren't that many pages. I think it's fairly succinct and should serve you well.

barky_carnation

I feel like the people that made the official CEH preparation materials have never communicated at all with the people that actually write the tests. The books are monstrous and cover probably hundreds upon hundreds of hacking tools. What are you going to see on your exam? Probably quite a bit f Nmap, and a question or two on Wireshark, NetCat, and maybe a little Snort. When I took the exam, anything else was thousand foot questions about what the specific purpose of a piece of software is and didn't get extremely secure. Things like Nessus, HPing, Firewalk, BBProxy.

JDMurray

"Too much material for too little exam" has always been the case with the CEH. By CEHv6, there were 67+ modules of information. CEHv7 condensed all that into 19 modules and did expunge some topics, but some of the modules--such as Hacking Web Servers and Hacking Web Application--are huge.

The CEH is good information for someone planning a career working in pen testing to learn and know, but I can understand how the casual-curious ethical hacker would be dismayed by the amount of material covered when most of it will (likely) not appear on the exam.

Khaos1911

Thanks for the input, fellas. I'll sit (and by sit, I mean kick the living crap out of it) for the CEH v8 exam Monday 2/3. I'm ready!

impelse

I read two books for the CEH, but I study by object, I used Bloson and polish my missing knowledge. Something that helped me a lot was the CCNA;S and two others training I took, it is too much information.

At the end you will their logic, takes time.

Khaos1911

Oh never mind, today I passed CEHv8 with a score of 88%. I definitely over studied! Good luck to everyone who attempts the exam.

dpsmooth15

Congratulations!!! It is always better to over study than to under study…especially with the cost of that exam.

impelse

Congrats

Khaos1911

Many thanks, DP and Impelse!

emerald_octane

Achieved a pass as well!

Khaos1911

Congrats, Emerald! Would love to hear your thoughts on the exam, lol. I know I have a few, smh.

emerald_octane

Thx! I came in at 82%. I started to sweat when they hit up network enumeration type questions as I simply didn't commit it to memory as I should have. I can't think of anything else that really threw me off.. the depth of the iClass is r.i.d.i.c.u.l.o.u.s compared to the exam.

AllenIT

I am studying for the CEH, I been doing some self study with Matt Walker v7 book. However I dont want to pay that $100 verification fee and get denied so i decided to do the boot camp. I have seen most of you pass with EC Council ilab and ilearn, was that very helpful? Compared to the in person training for few hours and days boot camps offer.

Khaos1911

Allen, believe me when I say this. The ilearn and iLabs are MORE than enough to prepare you for the exam. The Matt walker book (which is great as well) would just be icing on the cake.

AllenIT

Thats what i was thinking because I heard from others that did the training camp is all they do is just go through a lot of slide shows. And is like a waste of time. I did ask EC Council if they have some kind of tech support if I have a questions whiles doing the self study with them but they dont so that was the only pep peas. How was it for you.

emerald_octane

Well, yeah, ultimately the iLabs are just power point slides read off by some dude, but the content is important. If I had to do it again (actually, I will for the CHFI), I would use:

iClass (make extensive notes from this especially network enumeration)
iLabs (each of them)
Boson ExSim
Walker v8 Practice Exam

I purchased but hardly used the Michael Gregg material. IMO the iClass if available or the Walker v7 book is better.

AllenIT

Ok, so take notes for the iClass, so they actually dont have someone teaching the class. They just reading the slides. And you know the the iLabs are just for the tools. And did they do exams prep?

emerald_octane

no exam prep; i just had access to the iClass courseware only edition. I think the more expensive version provides access to everything.

AllenIT

Thanks.

JoJoCal19

emerald_octane wrote: »

no exam prep; i just had access to the iClass courseware only edition. I think the more expensive version provides access to everything.

Hey emerald, did the courseware come with the slides printed out as the manual?

emerald_octane

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

Hey emerald, did the courseware come with the slides printed out as the manual?

Nope. And the video interface is fairly clunky as well (atleast on a mac). If I ever tried to pause it or anything, it'd time out and i would have to restart the video.

Khaos1911

I have access to the entire iLearn package and I never had any trouble with the videos. I'm also on a mac....And for the most part, Kevin Cardwell who is the instructor in the video series, mostly just read off of the slide, but he had some insightful tid bits of his experience and encounters along the way. We're connected on Linkedin and he was happy to answer a question or two when I reached out to him. The package also comes with a practice test (iPrep) which I found more challenging then the actual exam.

JoJoCal19

emerald_octane wrote: »

Nope. And the video interface is fairly clunky as well (atleast on a mac). If I ever tried to pause it or anything, it'd time out and i would have to restart the video.

Is the only way to get the slides to take the actual class? I saw the slide samples on their site and visual learning is my preference so I would love to have them but I'm not taking the whole class. I should note, that I am also starting the WGU MSISA on March 1st and I heard you get some of the materials through the school.