I Spent $1,199 on the CEH v13. Here's My Honest Review After 6 Months.
How to Actually Pass It
The CEH v13 is a knowledge exam. It's testable. It's learnable. And it doesn't require you to hack anything during the test.
My approach:
Study resources:
Matt Walker's CEH All-in-One Exam Guide (the book is comprehensive)
TryHackMe's CEH prep path (free tier covers basics)
CEH v13 practice exams on ExamCert — $4.99 lifetime access. When the exam itself costs $1,199, spending $4.99 on quality practice questions is a no-brainer
Study timeline: 6-8 weeks of focused study. The content isn't hard — it's just vast. Break it into domains and tackle one per week.
Key areas to focus on:
Nmap flags and scan types (these show up constantly)
Encryption algorithms and their differences
Attack methodologies and phases
Social engineering techniques
Web app vulnerabilities (OWASP Top 10)
Cloud security models (shared responsibility)
The v13 Changes Worth Knowing
EC-Council updated the CEH to v13 with more AI-related content. Expect questions about:
AI-powered attack techniques
Machine learning in threat detection
Deepfake social engineering
AI-assisted vulnerability scanning
They also expanded cloud and IoT coverage. The exam is reflecting where cybersecurity is actually going, which is one of the better things about the update.