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ACSP and ACMT exams

I have contacted Apple about the Apple Care study materials and they are for ACMT and ACiT.
I'm almost ready to take the 10.10 exams but wanted another avenue to study from.
 
adam9c1 said:
I have contacted Apple about the Apple Care study materials and they are for ACMT and ACiT.
I'm almost ready to take the 10.10 exams but wanted another avenue to study from.
Click to expand...

Interesting that the ACMT would still be for 10.10 while the ACSP is now for 10.11. Question: Should you take this and pass it, would you have to retake it again as soon as the exams for 10.11 are current and 10.10 is deprecated?

I ask, because then you may have to spend double the time and money to get the certification for 10.10 and 10.11, and possibly be two versions behind, as 10.12 will be coming out later this year.

BL.
 
adam9c1 said:
I'm going for the ACTC 10.10
ACTC is not available for 10.11, only ACSP is.
Click to expand...

Fair enough.

The only reason I bring it up is would it behoove you to wait until it becomes available for 10.11, and then take it? Otherwise you'd have to pay for it again when it does, as while it still may be available, Apple witll go with what is current first.

BL.
 
I do not believe it will be available for 10.11. I think 10.10 is the last. I think Apple is walking away from that cert.
 
adam9c1 said:
I do not believe it will be available for 10.11. I think 10.10 is the last. I think Apple is walking away from that cert.
Click to expand...

Very interesting! If so, I'll need to let some of my coworkers know so they can get current ASAP. Thanks for the info!

BL.
 
bradl said:
Very interesting! If so, I'll need to let some of my coworkers know so they can get current ASAP. Thanks for the info!

BL.
Click to expand...
Congrats on passing the 10.11 support exam. And it does appear that Apple will not have a server exam for 10.11. While I have no proof of this, it appears that with the release of new verson of Server 5.0, Apple appears to be decoupling anything related with server and whatever the current Mac OS is.

Amsys mentions the removal of the ACTC certification here. http://www.amsys.co.uk/2016/01/os-x-el-capitan-certified-courses-arrived/ (Hat tip to Adam in pointing me to this site.). Apple does not mention anything about server exam for El Cap on their training site at all. Previously OS versions, they at least acknowledged both exams when they updated the training areas.

One q about the exam, did it pretty much track 10.10 as far as info or were there some new things that you may not have expected show up on the exam. No particulars if you do not want to. I'm studying for this exam now and am just curious. Thanks.
 
Butchie-T said:
Congrats on passing the 10.11 support exam. And it does appear that Apple will not have a server exam for 10.11. While I have no proof of this, it appears that with the release of new verson of Server 5.0, Apple appears to be decoupling anything related with server and whatever the current Mac OS is.

Amsys mentions the removal of the ACTC certification here. http://www.amsys.co.uk/2016/01/os-x-el-capitan-certified-courses-arrived/ (Hat tip to Adam in pointing me to this site.). Apple does not mention anything about server exam for El Cap on their training site at all. Previously OS versions, they at least acknowledged both exams when they updated the training areas.

One q about the exam, did it pretty much track 10.10 as far as info or were there some new things that you may not have expected show up on the exam. No particulars if you do not want to. I'm studying for this exam now and am just curious. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Not much that I expected to be different for the exam.. the format is still the same, and if there are any real "gotchas" it would be the changelog of features between 10.10 and 10.11. If you've studied up on 10.10, then just knowing the differences between 10.10 and 10.11 should get you a decently passing grade. As 10.11 was featured to emphasize some new features and stability ( ;) ), it wouldn't be glaringly different like it would between, say, 10.8 and 10.11.

Amsys is a good reliable source for studying for the exam; IIRC, they worked with ReviseIT on their app. If you cross that with the iLearn app and the book, you'll be in great shape to pass.

Good luck!

BL.
 
bradl said:
Not much that I expected to be different for the exam.. the format is still the same, and if there are any real "gotchas" it would be the changelog of features between 10.10 and 10.11. If you've studied up on 10.10, then just knowing the differences between 10.10 and 10.11 should get you a decently passing grade. As 10.11 was featured to emphasize some new features and stability ( ;) ), it wouldn't be glaringly different like it would between, say, 10.8 and 10.11.

Amsys is a good reliable source for studying for the exam; IIRC, they worked with ReviseIT on their app. If you cross that with the iLearn app and the book, you'll be in great shape to pass.

Good luck!

BL.
Click to expand...
Sweet!!!

Many thanks, that is what I have been doing.
 
Have a question a practice exam for 10.11 but it has two different answers based on the wording of the question so I'd like clarification.

On a Mac where can user preferences for sandboxed apps be stored?
A. ~/Library/Containers
B. ~/Library/Preferences
C. /Library/Preferences
D. /Library/Documents

Normally the answer is A because that's where preferences for sandboxed apps are stored (p. 829 of 10.11 Peachpit book). But the question here says USER preferences which could be answer B so it's seems like a trick question. Notice that the question says USER and there are location options using the tilde which also means USER so...

So my question is, is this a trick question or is the answer still A?
 
patent10021 said:
Have a question a practice exam for 10.11 but it has two different answers based on the wording of the question so I'd like clarification.

On a Mac where can user preferences for sandboxed apps be stored?
A. ~/Library/Containers
B. ~/Library/Preferences
C. /Library/Preferences
D. /Library/Documents

Normally the answer is A because that's where preferences for sandboxed apps are stored (p. 829 of 10.11 Peachpit book). But the question here says USER preferences which could be answer B so it's seems like a trick question. Notice that the question says USER and there are location options using the tilde which also means USER so...

So my question is, is this a trick question or is the answer still A?
Click to expand...

Let me answer this question with another question: How are sandboxed apps started? And what is the purpose for sandboxing apps? Actually, that second question is a question that could be part of the exam. But when you think about that and the reasoning why some apps are sandboxed to begin with, that will provide more insight to you.

And if you're still confused by that, here's a third question: Do you want anything from a sandboxed application to exist outside of a sandbox?

Food for thought.

BL.
 
bradl said:
Let me answer this question with another question: How are sandboxed apps started? And what is the purpose for sandboxing apps? Actually, that second question is a question that could be part of the exam. But when you think about that and the reasoning why some apps are sandboxed to begin with, that will provide more insight to you.

And if you're still confused by that, here's a third question: Do you want anything from a sandboxed application to exist outside of a sandbox?

Food for thought.

BL.
Click to expand...
Well I know the prefs for the apps are in containers and that's the answer (for the apps). BUT this question has the word user in it so I was thinking maybe they were asking not about the app prefs, but some other special user prefs.

Ok so I guess this insn't a trick question.
 
patent10021 said:
Well I know the prefs for the apps are in containers and that's the answer (for the apps). BUT this question has the word user in it so I was thinking maybe they were asking not about the app prefs, but some other special user prefs.

Ok so I guess this insn't a trick question.
Click to expand...

I apologise for being so cryptic, but I'm trying to get you the answer you are looking for without giving you the answer, because the question you are asking is actually on the exam.

With that, I will say that you are reading too much into the question. Here's a question for you: While applied use has mainly been done in iOS, the concept of it is still valid for OS X. How does a jailbreak work?

I'll provide the answer to that in a bit.

BL.
 
bradl said:
Here's a question for you: While applied use has mainly been done in iOS, the concept of it is still valid for OS X. How does a jailbreak work?

I'll provide the answer to that in a bit.

BL.
Click to expand...
This is obviously not a test question right?
 
patent10021 said:
This is obviously not a test question right?
Click to expand...

My question isn't a test question, no; but the concept of a jailbreak and what actually happens with a jailbreak plays into the answer to the question you are looking for. That's why I asked.

BL.
 
Well the exploit isn't in a sandbox. The exploit is the JB software which makes the file system readable/writeable/mountable.
 
patent10021 said:
Well the exploit isn't in a sandbox. The exploit is the JB software which makes the file system readable/writeable/mountable.
Click to expand...

On the contrary. The exploit is the app, as it isn't something signed by a trusted developer or the MAS. That's why it would be sandboxed. Either way, you're missing the point.

For an exploit used by a jailbreak to work, the exploit has to be able to write data outside of its sandbox. That's the cog that is needed for any jailbreak. So going back to your question, when you're thinking about it being a trick question because you saw the word 'user', the problem with your answer is that if written to ~/Library/Preferences, that would be outside of the sandbox - the very thing that an exploit for a jailbreak needs - so it can get access to the filesystem.

With that said, all but one answer creates that situation. Which one does not? Which one keeps everything: application, preferences, etc., all within its sandbox?

BL.
 
Well the exploit is the bypassing or patching of iOS checkpoints via BootROM exploit or Userland exploit to gain root access to the file system which then allows the download of Cydia apps. Then Cydia tweaks and themes can work because the checkpoints have been patched or bypassed (depending on the exploit method). These non-iTunes apps don't need a signature/key because the JB bypasses or patches the iOS signature check. So the exploit really is the BootROM or Userland exploit.

Anyway the Peachpit book says
/Users/kevin/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

The test answer I have says
B. ~/Library/Preferences/ (this is incorrect)

I develop for iOS but have never sandboxed an app. Looking at the Apple Developer docs.
Accessing User Data
Most OS X path-finding APIs return paths relative to the container instead of relative to the user’s home directory. If your app, before you sandbox it, accesses locations in the user’s actual home directory (~) and you are using Cocoa or Core Foundation APIs, then, after you enable sandboxing, your path-finding code automatically uses your app’s container instead.

For first launch of your sandboxed app, OS X automatically migrates your app’s main preferences file.

Accessing Preferences of Other Apps
Because App Sandbox directs path-finding APIs to the container for your app, reading or writing to the user’s preferences takes place within the container. Preferences for other sandboxed apps are inaccessible. Preferences for apps that are not sandboxed are placed in the ~/Library/Preferences directory, which is also inaccessible to your sandboxed app.
Click to expand...
So as I suspected it is sort of a trick question when they use the word user. It's irrelevant if it's user or not, there is no other location to store prefs for a sandboxed app other than ~/Library/Containers/

That's what I get from the Apple docs and PeachPit book.
 
Last edited:
patent10021 said:
Well the exploit is the bypassing or patching of iOS checkpoints via BootROM exploit or Userland exploit to gain root access to the file system which then allows the download of Cydia apps. Then Cydia tweaks and themes can work because the checkpoints have been patched or bypassed (depending on the exploit method). These non-iTunes apps don't need a signature/key because the JB bypasses or patches the iOS signature check. So the exploit really is the BootROM or Userland exploit.

Anyway the Peachpit book says
/Users/kevin/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

The test answer I have says
B. ~/Library/Preferences/ (this is incorrect)

I develop for iOS but have never sandboxed an app. Looking at the Apple Developer docs.

So as I suspected it is sort of a trick question when they use the word user. It's irrelevant if it's user or not, there is no other location to store prefs for a sandboxed app other than ~/Library/Containers/

That's what I get from the Apple docs and PeachPit book.
Click to expand...

Which is the correct answer. You do not want to have any sandboxed app writing any data, including preferences, outside of its container. If the container is the jail, then by simply being able to write preferences outside of the container, you have already effectively broken out of the jail.

Say you have downloaded an app that does such a thing. And also say that because you haven't looked at the actual preferences being written, you don't realize that it's a shell script that writes data from /dev/zero or /dev/random to your home directory.

The next time you run the app, the app checks for the existence of that file, and if it exists, changes permissions of the file and executes it, filling up your entire filesystem. Or better than that, say that it checks for agents for it to launch, and since it is in your context, will set them to start the next time your mac starts, plus continues to write /dev/zero to your home directory.

Not only would you have filled up the filesystem, but cause resource intensive services to run that you didn't want to have running to begin with; all because a sandboxed app was able to write data outside of its container.

That is the reason why all of it needs to be contained within its container; application data, preferences, the executable, the entire lot.

BL.
 
lol :D Well I was actually just asking if it was a trick question because it's so obvious I thought they were alluding to something else by including the word "user" in the question. They didn't need to use the word "user" because that's what the prefs are for. o_O Basically the question made me second guess myself because there's no other location other than containers.
 
Can you give us a hint of how many questions are there? And how long will the exam be.

I Will be taking the exam either in san francisco or san diego 2nd week of june. Can anyone recommend a good testing centre? Hopefully i can get over with the jetlag as it will be a 14hrs flight.

If i fail do i have a second chance to retake it? And for how many days i will have to wait to be able to retake the exam again?

Been practising the reviseIT app and getting always a passing score. I also been reading slowly and understanding the acsp book from peachpit - hopefully those two above would be enough for me to pass. I have been a mac user for a long time but never had taken any support apple certifications.
 
If you are going for the 10.10 ACTC it is two tests which are independent of each other.

$250 per test, if you fail you need to pay again. Don't know how soon you can retake (they probably have you wait 24h or 48h is my guess).

Since they are two separate tests they are treated as such. You can take a short break in between or days if needed.

On the Apple page it gives you all the info as far as passing score, requirements, etc.

Personally I have learned a lot from the 10.10 (non server) essentials book and I thought I was all good on that front.

What was helpful was to go through the books and do all the labs at the end of each chapter.

You do t need fancy computers. I did it using Mac minis a1283 2009 model.

Good luck.
 
adam9c1 said:
If you are going for the 10.10 ACTC it is two tests which are independent of each other.
Click to expand...
ACTC is no longer. There will only be the ACSP and ACMT.

The Server Essentials exam is discontinued for OS X El Capitan along with the Mac Management Basics course.
 
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