It sounds like you're well prepared.

I don't have specific experience with the Wiley prep book, but I have glanced it over once or twice in the store. I'll try to take a look at it tomorrow to give you a better analysis on that. I highly recommend that people read the Official CEH Study Guide, which you've apparently done. That alone should prepare you pretty well for the exam. It obviously only touches the surface compared to what the CEH courseware covers. I also have not tried any of the practice exams on the CDs, so I can't speak for those.

As for your 22-page tool study guide, it's not needed. The test will cover several of the more important tools, there is no way it could possibly cover all of the tools mentioned in the courseware. Focus on what's in the study guide and make sure you're familiar with running them from a command-line (eg. nmap and netcat switches).

Most of all, relax Take your time (you've got plenty). When I took it, I marked every question that I wasn't 100% sure of. That way when I got to the end, I knew that anything not marked was correct. I had plenty of time to go back through all of my marked questions and it paid off. I made several changes after re-reading the questions compared to my initial answers, you have to be careful on some of them.

Good luck and let us know how it goes

BillV

Haha.. yeah I completely understand. I was pretty nervous when clicking that 'submit exam' button at the end... then not seeing any response for a minute.. ugh.

I can't imagine how it feels after the CISSP exam and not finding out for a couple weeks.

Another good source for information is the ExamPrep book by Michael Gregg. It's a little older/dated now, but the material is still very relevant and helpful for the most recent CEH exam.

BillV

The test really isn't that bad.  I sweated bullets when I went in to take the test.  150 questions is enough to kill an avid test taker, let alone someone my age that hasn't took a test in years.  The amount of questions you are asked and the length of time it takes to complete is the worst part about the test.

I wouldn't keep putting it off.  If you have studied everything you stated, you will be fine.  Lose the fear of not being ready, that will effect you on test day.  YOU ARE READY.

I found during the test I was trying to read faster and answer quickly just to get the dang thing over with.  I finally realized what I was doing and slowed myself down, relaxed a little and finished the test in about 1 1/2 hours.

I guess the luck of the draw give me a few hard questions right off the bat and that kind of made me paranoid about the other 140 questions left.  Then it started getting easy for me after about the first 10 questions.  As I started seeing a bunch of questions I actually knew the answer too, I was fine after that.

As BillV did, I marked questions I wasn't sure about...THE FIRST 10..lol  I then went back, being calmed than when I first started and answered those questions.

I scored 91% on my test.  If I can do it, you can also.  If you keep putting it off in fear of not being ready, you will never take the test.  Again, its really not that bad if you have studied.  Good Luck on your test.

$w33p3R

Thank you for all of the feedback.  I took a few weeks off so I am back to studying this week and plan to sit for the exam Friday morning.  I'm pretty good at learning book material, but agian, I wish I had the time to tinker with the the tools more.

The CISSP was a beast.  I studied on and off for a year for it.  Read the Shon Harris guide cover to cover and then watched the Shon Harris DVD set.  Then I actually went to a 6 day long bootcamp review, stayed up all night the night of the exam and then took the exam on no sleep.  This is how I take every exam and how I took exams in college as well.  I'm used to it and it makes me feel more prepared.  You don't know how long that exam is until it's over.  I finished it in 2.5 hours.  My entire bootcamp class had the attitude of we could have passed it or failed it.  I only know of 1 guy that didn't pass from my class and he was the only one that said he thought it was easy.   It's good to have that one behind me.

I'll post after the exam on Friday.....

I took the exam today and wow.....was I expecting something different.  I could not believe how long the questions were.  Most were multiple paragraphs in length because they were describing the situations setting you up for the actual question.  The practice exams on the CD from the Official Review Guide didn't closely mirror the actual exam, but some of the questions from the CD were helpful. 

My advice to anyone that is going to take this exam is to get hands on with all the tools the Official Review guide says you will need to have knowledge of for the exam.  Being familiar with tools switches and the resulting output would have been a huge help.  I went into it just wanting to gain the information about what's out there with regards to hacking tools and how the tools are being used in real world hacks.  I should have gotten more hands on knowledge and I realize that now. 

The test took me 2.5 hours.  There were about 10 that I had to go back and review and a few others that I changed from my original decision.  I submitted the exam and waited to see a disappointing score only to find that I passed!  I was shocked and more than that.....relieved.  For me, the CEH exam was just under the CISSP in difficulty because of all of the tools and technical information thrown at you.  Maybe if you go to the official CEH class the instructors tell you what to key on and when they go through the material they may give you the "wink wink...you may want to pay attention to this", but the self study route without the tools or practical exercises was probably not the right route to take in my opinion.  If your a security admin dealing with IDS rule files and router ACLs regularly, the test should be much easier.  They say the CISSP is "an inch deep and a mile wide" across all of IT security, while the CEH has a little more focus on the network and OS sides, but for me, there wasn't much seperation between the difficulty of the 2 exams.

My final question is, what do I get?  Is EC-Council going to send me an e-mail with a bunch of info stating I can now use the CEH as part of my title and that they will be sending me a more formal certificate of completion?  I know what Cisco and the ISC provide, but not sure about EC-Council.

AJ