After completing the CPTS course in October 2005 I decided to study for both Mile2's CPTS exam and the EC-Council's CEH exam that the Mile2 course helped to prepare me for.

After a period of study I decided to book a date for the CEH exam, upon application for this I discovered that it is required to have a voucher code to schedule an appointment for the CEH exam. As I did not have a code I contacted the EC-Council and was informed that I needed to complete an application form giving details of my experience qualifications as well as providing proof of identity and residence. Due to recently change jobs I was worried that I would not fulfil their minimum requirements even though I had enough years experience with other roles. After quite a few emails to several of the addresses from the website I was able to confirm that this would be ok and faxed the form to the US as they do not have a UK representative. Again after a while of waiting I received a call from a UK company, whose name I forget, that was a working with the EC-Council. He stated that he would press my application through the EC-Council and again I waited for a response. I recently received another call from the representative and was told that although I had enough experience the Council were concerned that my knowledge would not be adequate to complete the CEH exam and so would rather not see me lose money by taking the CEH exam and failing, even though I had made it clear that I had taken the Mile2 CPTS course very recently. They suggested that in order to qualify for a voucher I should complete an EC-Council recognised course and then sit the exam.

Overall I found this very disappointing as I have been studying for the CEH exam for some time using both Mile2's and the EC-Council's material, although the Mile2 documentation and software I have found to be superior, but wanted to make sure I was covering everything that could be asked in the CEH exam. Only to find that the promise on the website that says if you do self study you will then be able to take the exam proved to be misleading. The representative said that I could chose to do the course with anyone as long as the were recognised by the EC-Council, something that I have found hard to double check as many people run the EC-Council courses but few specify that they are EC-Council sanctioned. This left me in the position that I would have to take another course, this time paying for it myself and not a small sum of money, on the off chance that this would allow me to qualify for a voucher and also to learn the things that I already learnt form the Mile2 course, a lot of money to be taught subjects I have already learnt.

To me it seems that the whole process is just an attempt by EC-Council to get people to do one of their courses and raise revenue for them and their selected partners. The customer service I received left a lot to be answered for and some of the email accounts bounced back as undeliverable.

I feel that Mile2's open exam policy is far better placed for this type of situation and the speed of response that I have received has been excellent, combined with the high quality and content of the course I attended.

Given the choice again I would focus of the CPTS rather than the CEH exam.

Well, I passed the exam in Dec. 2004 after takig the class in July 04. Passed the exam on my 3rd time, mainly because I suck at programming. I lost $500 before I passed it. It's only money. But I kept at it, and kept studying. But my first time I failed it, I got 65%, which I thought was pretty darn good form the first time.