I just upgraded to BasicTeX 2012, and here’s a quick synopsis of the steps:
tlmgr uninstall
- download and install the current BasicTeX package from tug.org
- update
PATH
environment variable to include the current install location:/usr/local/texlive/2012basic/bin/universal-darwin
tlmgr update --self
tlmgr update --all
tlmgr install collection-fontsrecommended
tlmgr install subfigure
tlmgr install exam
The Exam package is new (chalk it up to the new job), and the impetus for the updated install. The rest of the steps are really based on my previous TeX posts: here and here.