Apple certified support professional certificate is planned for the professionals who work as technical coordinator, help desk professional, network technician and technical support for Mac OS X. this certification is earned by passing the exam OS X Support Essentials 10.8 Exam with 73% or more. The best way to prepare for this exam is to gain experience with Mac OS X. also there are Apple certified trainers who conduct classes regarding this certification. Also Apple Pro Training Series OS X Mountain Lion Support Essentials is the book for this exam which can help a lot to prepare for it.

The basic topics covered in this exam areas follows:

• Installation and Configuration. This deals with knowledge on all aspects of installation like formatting the hard drive, installing in single or multiple partition, hardware and software requirements to install Mac OS, creating recovery volume, configuring network settings, administrative privileges and setting up assistant.
• User accounts: This deals with knowledge in creating and managing user accounts, deleting and restoring user accounts, types of user accounts, security related issues in sharing, fast user switching and its errors, firmware password, enabling and disabling it, security features of iCloud and encrypted accounts using Legacy FileVault.
• File systems: this deals with requirements of FileVault 2 and its other applications, how to reset home folder, file system journaling, using disk utility and system information, how a file system gets corrupted, file ownership and permission, owner and group permissions of a file and sticky bit in OS X.
• Data management: this topic deals with tools and methods to create alias, types and functions of metadata, fonts and its installations, extended attributes of OS X, spotlight metadata in OS X, archiving files, disk utility, time machine to create periodical backups, issues during backup and space limitations for backup.
• Applications and Processes: this topic deals with managing and supporting installed applications, methods and mechanisms to lock and unlock files and folders, Quick Look and its various functions, requirements in purchasing and installing applications, requirements for running java applications in Mac, 32 and 64 bit modes of operation in OS X, managing documents between iCloud and compatible applications, protected memory, activity monitor and RAM usage, format and information about installed applications and how to force quit an application, Gatekeeper functionalities and Dashboard widgets.
• Network Configuration: this topic deals with the basics of TCP/IP , purpose and format of IP addresses and subnet masks, how messages are transferred between different machines with IP addresses, how DNS works, what are IPv4, IPv6 and MAC addresses and how to differentiate them, installing, configuring and managing network interface in Mac OS, Wi-Fi connections during startup and waking, storing Wi-Fi connections with their credentials, tools used in creating and managing Wi-Fi, VPN connections, Network locations, multiple network connections and network interface priorities.
• Network Services: this topic covers the basics of services provided by network such as configuring and working on Safari, Mail, Messages, Contacts and Calendar, sharing the services configured, network share points, how to mount and unmounts them, file services in network, relationship between client software, client configurations, server software and server configurations, relationship between network connection and port, dynamic service discovery and protocols involved, configuring firewall and how it works in Mac OS.
• Peripherals and printing: this topic deals with how to install and manage peripheral devices connected to Mac, identifying 64- and 32-bit kernel extensions, connecting devices with Bluetooth in Mac, buses used in Mac for various connectors, using system information to identify the buses various peripheral devices are using, configuring printer and its sharing properties and role of CUPS and PPD files in OS X printing.
• System Startup: this deals with topic such as various steps used in system startup and wake modes, launched applications during these modes and their functionalities, shutdown and logout in OS X, purpose and features of Single-user mode and verbose mode, identifying and resolving kernel loading issues, safe mode and safe boot, identifying the differences and how to enter into them and solving various issues in these modes.

These basic topics are explained clearly in the exam preparation guide available in apple.com website and various questions with answers are provided in it. One should have hands on experience in all these topics before attending an exam to clear it.