Hello everyone:
Yesterday I took the Pentest+ beta exam and thought I'd share the positive experience. Since ISC2 doesn't have an equivalent offering, I hope the mods don't mind me talking about another product (and therefore doesn't cause a conflict of interest) as some may be interested, career-wise, from this certification!
I don't know my score because the program is in the beta phase. The certifying authority has to review the tests, adjust the program, and then decide what indeed is the passing standard. That will happen in June I've heard. The fee for this beta test was only $50 so I figured what do I have to lose?
Yesterday was the last day to take the beta exam and it was limited to 400 registrations... but some may find the following helpful moving forward.
Now for the good part... this was an AWESOME test. There are no study guides or classes for this yet as the program is in beta but go to the vendor's website and download the "Certification Exam Objectives Exam Number: PT0-001". Without violating my NDA I will say the test was true to the Exam Objectives.
It's a technical test. If someone passes this exam, they know their stuff. Pentest+ looks like everything the CEH aspires to be but isn't. The Exam Objectives list scripting, programming, tools, attacks/exploits, countermeasures/solutions, etc. as subjects for this certification.
Real-world experience will help immensely in earning this certification. In lieu of the any study material presently existing, I recommend:
* finding CTF events (the local library has monthly ones here)
* running through *TECHNICAL* courses (take a python or ruby one) on edx or cybrary
* running NATAS on overthewire.org would be VERY helpful (and do it without googling the answers)
* Have a VM set up at home with at least one Linux host and one Windows host on the same network
* Download all the tools from the Exam Objectives and take them for a spin... including knowing common command line switches
I hope this helps. It was a good experience. Good luck!
