Patience is a virtue I was never afforded.

At 2.42AM GMT today I submitted my exam report to the offensive security Challenges department. Since then I have probably checked my emails well over 500 times. I am fully aware of the fact that it may take up to three days to receive my results back, however I have been awake for over 48 hours and all rationality and logic was exhausted during the exam. Plus I get a little boost of energy from the anticipation that is at least helping me not fall asleep at my desk.

So how was the exam you may be thinking? How did I do? Did I hack the planet?

The answer to those questions will be covered in a Exam review in depth at a later date once I know whether or not I passed. But I will tell you no matter what, I am extremely proud of myself, I truly gave everything I had to offer and worked day and night to achieve this. With no real practical security experience I worked my ass off in order to get myself to a standard where I thought I had a chance of passing the exam and you know what, I never did feel that way. I had extreme anxiety the whole way, right until the very second my exam started. Only outweighed by sheer determination and a passion to do what I love.

As a result of all my hard work I managed to root 4/5 machines in the exam and having a pretty good idea of how to root the fifth but just not having enough time to work out the kinks, bagging 80 of the available 100 points. I then spent pretty much the whole 24 hours compiling my report ensuring I was completely happy with it before submitting it today reading it at least 50 times and ensuring that all the spacing and tabbing was rendered correctly in pdf format.

No matter what the result, I can at least say, whole heartedly, I truly did “Try Harder”. I tried Harder than ever before or anything I have attempted previously and I really hope it paid off and I can share the good news with you in a few days as well as give you my take on the exam.

I Just wanted to say a quick thank you to Offsec for putting so much time and effort into creating a truly incredible, humbling and testing experience, I have had an absolutely amazing time in the labs and have loved every second of it… Yes even the 4am breakdowns. It really is an incredible experience and I would recommend it to absolutely anyone who wants to test themselves in the cybersecurity space.

For now… We wait.