I passed Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH v13) exam with an exam score of 122 out of 125 and i would like to share my experiences of the preparation and the exam.
So with that intro out of the way, let see how the exam was.
Why I went for this certification
I chose this certification mainly for the recognition it has in the cybersecurity industry. I already hold certifications like Certified Professional Penetration Tester (eCPPTv2) and Junior Penetration Tester (eJPT), both of which are now provided by INE (earlier eLearnSecurity). CEH is still one of the certifications that almost always appears in job listings, whether it’s a beginner-level or associate-level role. To get past the ATS and into the HR’s office, I decided to pursue CEH.
Preparation
I bought the CEH course and prepared for around 3 months. My preparation was irregular cause i had my college final year project in between. I first went though the courseware they provide when you purchase the course which is 4000 pages !!!.
The core modules were :
- Footprinting & Recon
- Scanning Networks
- Enumeration
- Vulnerability Analysis
- System Hacking
- Malware, Sniffing, Social Engineering
- Web App Hacking
- Wireless, Mobile, IoT Attacks
- Cryptography
- Cloud, OT, and Threat Intelligence
All of the modules had a section for AI and how to perform them with the help of AI.
The course was really informative and covered content in great detail, which is a huge plus for beginners. However, there’s just so much material to go through that it can feel overwhelming very quickly.
With the official course, i used :
- Matt Walker’s “CEH All-in-One” book
- CEH V12 Certified Ethical Hacker Study Guide with 750 Practice Test Questions – Book by Ric Messier
Exam Day
Exam day finally arrives and i prepared as much as i could. The exam was easy, maybe because i exhausted every study material i had multiple times which i agree was not healthy for my mental health but turned out to be beneficial for the exam.
The exam consisted of 125 MCQs Based Questions with a time of 4 hours for completion. There is no negative marking but the passing score varies between 60% and 85% depending on the difficulty of the specific exam.
So I started the exam and the questions were mostly scenario based and some numerical based with very easy calculation so if you have went through the official courseware or the exam blueprint provided free of cost on EC-Council site, you should be ok. The questions were fairly straight forward so it didn’t take me long at all to complete the exam which was around 1 hour. I completed the exam, informed the proctor and submitted the exam and the result was instant, 122/125.
Tips for CEH v13
1. Understand the Exam Objective
- Don’t just memorize terms — CEH covers footprinting, scanning, enumeration, malware, social engineering, wireless, cloud, and more.
- Focus on understanding why things work the way they do, not just the tool names.
2. Use Labs to Reinforce Concepts
- Tools like Nmap, Wireshark, Metasploit, Burp Suite are often tested conceptually.
- Hands-on practice makes MCQs easier — you’ll recognize scenarios instead of guessing.
3. Don’t Ignore Terminology
- Flashcards or spaced repetition apps can help here.
- CEH loves questions on acronyms, protocols, and standards (e.g., OSI layers, TCP flags, encryption types).
4. Take note of the Tools used
- There are a lot of Questions on the exam that asks about tools by name and what they do so when going though the official course or the study guides take notes of the tools used.
5. Take care of Yourself
- A non-technical advice: don’t underestimate rest. Sleep well, stay relaxed, and you’ll think clearer during the exam
Final Thoughts
Ok so final thoughts, i know by the tone of this blog it might seem like the exam is a piece of cake but its not. I have purposely written it this way cause i read a lot of blogs regarding the experience of what it was like to take the exam and seeing posts of people failing really disturbed me mentally and fed a great deal in that imposter syndrome.
So keep in mind that exam is not easy but is absolutely doable and with the right preparation and using the right resources, it can even be easy. Don’t let the experiences of others define your own but don’t ignore them outright either, learn from it and improve and trust your journey.