EH-Net

So i just got done taking the test and I failed  :-[

But I do have to say, I was exctied to take the test and I liked how it was put together. Since the test retires tomorrow I'll just do v6 later this year. I'm going to take a break for now and I'll pick up on the v6 in a month or 4.  It did seem like I was taking the v6 test because were some things on there I never heard of.  But for those you are up next, study study study.

Bickmade,
I would like to congratulate you on making the effort to do the study and take the exam.
Also I would not think of it as a failure, focus on the knowledge you have gained, and the experiences you have gained.

All the best in the future.

Yea, it was a good experience and I did learn alot.  I only shelled out 250 with the two books so that wasn't bad money wise.  I'm not mad at all but I got a 68% which comes out to 3 questions :)  O well.  I'm getting ready for DefCon w00t.

Hi everybody, I've been following the forum for a while but this is my fisrt participation.

I'm sorry to hear you failed the exam, just a quick comment, are you sure you took version 5 and not 6?

I'm saying this because I had mine today, and although I had scheduled the version 5 and received the confirmation and everything in order, Pearson delivered the version 6. I didn't want to take it since I was not ready for so many new modules introduced in v6, I knew I'd failed it and wasted my money. Now I'm trying to get my refund, hope I get it.

Yeah, sorry to hear you failed the test. 

Likewise mambru, sorry to hear about your experience with Pearson.  I've had problems with them and Prometric in the past, but I live in a smaller area so the testing centers are few and far between.  Don't know if that has anything to do with it.

bickmade, sounds like you came pretty darn close to passing.  Just study up a little more and you'll be ready.  I'm planning to take mine sometime at the end of this year when my employer releases the certification reimbursement money (trying not to take it on my own dime).

Have fun at Defcon.

Thats funny that you mentioned that because I felt like I was taking the v6 instead of the v5 test even though it said v5.  I had some questions on there that I was not familiar with and when I went back to the v6 ciriculum on the site, it had some of the items from the ciriculum on the test.  I felt like it was decieved.  I got another voucher and I'm going to take it next month.  I talked to someone from EC and they said the test didn't change much, just added a bunch more questions.

I don't believe that there are any different modules covered in the v6 exam than in the v5 exam, they should be the same. There is however, a large pool of questions that the exams pull from. You should be able to study using the v5 review guide for the v6 exam.

When I took the exam, I found that the wording that was used was not the best one I have seen in exams. Anyone else had this impression?

However, English is not my mother tongue...  :)

I took the exam 2 years ago (I failed it  :( )so I don't remember about the exam, but I have that same impression when reading the material provided by EC-Council, sometimes it's misleading/confusing

When I took it (over a year ago, I believe), it was a very difficult exam. I didn't get to take the class like a boot camp, but I had the video based class.
I failed the exam with a 69%, and passing is 70%. I started studying to take the exam again, with the courseware and a study guide, and after a few months, I decided to call the EC-Council (right before attempting the exam again). I mentioned how I had been studying to take the exam again, and gave them my testing results from before. They reviewed my case, and let me appeal the results and gave me the certification. I don't feel like I lost anything by doing that, just saved myself the US$250 exam fee, since I was already so close before, I probably wasn't going to fail it again. :)

eht3real, thanks for posting this.  I know that I would have never even thought to call EC council had I been in your situation.   I am sure quite a few people would be in the same boat.

Very interesting. Did they comment on that at all? I'd be curious as to what made them change their (collective) mind. Maybe BillV can comment...

Yeah, that is interesting.  I've never heard of them doing that before.  Please let us know if they shared any of their rationale.

Indeed. As you have learned for it anyway it's not a big problem I guess..good for you to save the money. ;)

Nope, I'm just as surprised... that's the first I've heard of that.

Sounds like a jedi mind trick to me. "This is the cert I'm looking for. Now pass me."

They said they would only do it if it was better than 69.5%, but mine didn't have decimal. Pretty much, I just wrote up a really professional letter and explained how I had been studying for an extra couple of months to take it again, and wanted to ask if there was anything they could do for me. I was really only asking for a discount on the exam fee, or something like that, but they gave it to me, anyway. :)

Wanted to provide a quick follow-up on this. I noticed this happen a second time and decided it had to be brought to the scheme committee's attention...

We will be discussing this topic (appealing certification score) in our next meeting - end of this week or next. I believe it is unanimous that everyone is against it.

This defeats the purpose/principle of having a minimum score to pass and is certainly a bad precedent to start. The cut-off exists for a reason, and we will be trying to make sure it is enforced.

eth3real - nothing against you of course, I'm sure you understand the concerns here. Consider yourself lucky you didn't have to take the exam again ;D

BillV

Haven't noticed it yet that you are in the comitee BillV :)
Good to know a person on the source itself.

Absolutely, I try to bring whatever info I can to the EH-Net community :)

BillV I think its the right thing to get a clear stance on the situation, and as you rightly say baselines exist for a reason, and if its 70% pass score thats required it should be stuck to in fairness to all others.

However :) I would like to also encourage others to do as eth3real has done in every day activities. There is nothing lost in asking in a professional and confident manner, and this scenario proves that aside from the experiance of the conversation / event you can sometimes get a bonus :)

Yeah, like I said, I was just trying to ask for assistance with the exam fee, since I had already come so close to passing it the previous time, and there were several months in between when I failed the exam, and when I called them. I was studying pretty consistently during those months. I was very surprised about their recommendation to appeal the results. :)
To be honest, I was hoping they would just give me an exam voucher or something. I actually wanted to take the exam again, but it was really hard for me to pay for it again.

Yeah, understood. I'm sure you'd have passed anyway. I'm kind of surprised they didn't decide to give you a voucher instead. If they figured you deserved the cert, may have well given you a free ticket to pass the test :-\ Oh well, no big deal.