ASEW vs ASSC: Which CeMAP 3 Paper Should You Sit?

ASEW and ASSC are the two versions of the single CeMAP® 3 unit, the Assessment of Mortgage Advice Knowledge set by Walbrook (LIBF). This page compares them, explains what differs for Scotland, and helps you decide which paper fits the work you will do. Everything outside the sixth learning outcome is the same UK-wide; the Scottish differences are in property law, the buying process and property tax. For the full CeMAP 3 syllabus and the exam format, see our CeMAP 3 (ASEW) guide. Our practice uses England and Wales scenarios, and we say below exactly what that means if you are sitting ASSC.

What are ASEW and ASSC?

ASEW and ASSC are the two codes for CeMAP 3: the same synoptic exam of 6 case studies with 10 questions each, 60 marks in 2 hours, where only learning outcome 6 has separate England and Wales and Scotland criteria.

Walbrook's CeMAP qualification specification lists the unit as "ASEW/ASSC", and some Walbrook pages write it "ASEW/SC". No official page we found spells out the abbreviations. Our reading is that ASEW means England and Wales and ASSC means Scotland, because LO6 sets out "England/Wales" criteria and then, joined by "OR", "Scotland" criteria. Treat that as an inference, not an official definition.

The unit replaced the old CeMAP 3 exam, ASSM. Walbrook treats an ASSM pass as equivalent to ASEW/ASSC, as its page on the changes from 30 September 2025 shows.

Feature	ASEW	ASSC
Our reading of the code	England and Wales	Scotland
Format	6 case studies × 10 questions	Same
Time and marks	2 hours, 60 marks	Same
Pass, merit, distinction	42, 48, 54	Same
LO1 to LO5	Shared wording	Same
LO6	Exchange, completion, E&W legislation	Offers, missives, Scottish legislation
Module fee (as of October 2026)	£160	£160 (one CeMAP 3 fee)

The fee comes from Walbrook's CeMAP page, which lists one CeMAP 3 registration at £160 and a £120 resit; it does not price the two papers separately.

Key fact: Walbrook's public pages do not explain how a candidate picks ASEW or ASSC. Confirm the route with Walbrook when you register.

What is the same on both papers?

Both papers share the same format, timing, pass mark and learning outcomes LO1 to LO5: mortgage solutions, specialist lending, MCOB and ICOBS rules, ethical advice and protection, which together are five of the six outcomes the case studies test.

The shared outcomes are:

Outcome	Subject (our summary)
LO1	Mortgage solutions and their suitability
LO2	Property purchase and specialist lending: buy-to-let, second charge, bridging, self-build, auction
LO3	MCOB, ICOBS and consumer credit rules
LO4	Ethical and sustainable advice
LO5	Mortgage protection and state help
LO6	House buying and mortgage law: differs

The FCA rules in LO3 apply across the UK. MCOB, ICOBS and the Consumer Duty are the same in Glasgow as in Leeds, so a question on ESIS timing or the 7-day reflection period has the same answer on either paper. Protection products, affordability rules and buy-to-let underwriting are UK-wide too.

Some LO2 content is affected by nation. LO2 AC2.7 covers "the different taxation implications related to property ownership", and property tax is devolved. The syllabus does not say whether an ASSC case uses Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, but it is the tax a Scottish purchase pays, so expect it (our reading).

Exam tip: If you are sitting ASSC, five-sixths of your preparation is identical to an ASEW candidate's. Do not let the Scottish material crowd out MCOB and protection.

How does LO6 differ for Scotland?

LO6 differs for Scotland in the buying process: ASEW tests exchange of contracts and completion, while ASSC tests conditional and unconditional offers, acceptance, conclusion of missives and completion, with the solicitor acting as the buyer's legal adviser.

The criteria, as worded in the specification:

	ASEW (England and Wales)	ASSC (Scotland)
Parties	AC6.1a: "Role of estate agent, valuer, conveyancer and legal adviser"	AC6.1b: "Role of estate agent, valuer and legal adviser"
Process	AC6.2a: "Process to contract exchange, completion and when a contract becomes binding or private treaty"	AC6.2b: "Conditional and unconditional offer"; AC6.3b: "Acceptance, conclusion of missives, completion and private bargain"
Legislation	AC6.4: eight England and Wales items	AC6.4: nine Scottish items

What that means in a case:

Stage	England and Wales	Scotland
Information for buyers	Buyer commissions a survey; seller supplies property forms	Seller provides a Home Report (survey and valuation, energy report, questionnaire) before marketing
Making an offer	Offer to the estate agent, "subject to contract"	Formal written offer by the buyer's solicitor, often after a note of interest and a closing date
Binding point	Exchange of contracts	Conclusion of missives
Completion	Completion day	Date of entry
Registration	HM Land Registry	Registers of Scotland
Property tax return	SDLT within 14 days	LBTT within 30 days

In Scotland the solicitor normally handles both the legal work and the formal offer, which is why the Scottish criterion has no separate "conveyancer". Gazumping is harder once a formal offer has been accepted and missives are concluded, because the bargain is then binding. Our conveyancing process guide walks through each step for both jurisdictions.

Key fact: In England and Wales nothing is binding until exchange. In Scotland, once missives are concluded, the buyer and seller are both bound.

Which Scottish laws are on the ASSC syllabus?

The ASSC syllabus lists nine Scottish items under AC6.4, "policies, as determined by the Scottish Executive, affecting the mortgage process and property market in Scotland", from the Matrimonial Homes Act to the Mortgage Rights (Scotland) Act 2001.

The names below are the syllabus's own short forms, in its order. The notes are ours.

1. Matrimonial Homes Act. The syllabus example: "single borrowers require an affidavit". A non-owning spouse can have occupancy rights, so a lender lending to one spouse alone needs evidence about them.
2. Tenancy Act. The syllabus gives no year or full title.
3. Mortgage Rights Act. Listed separately from item 9 and without a year; it most likely points to the same 2001 Act (our reading).
4. Statutory Repair Act. The syllabus gives no year or full title.
5. Bankruptcy Act, which "refers to 'sequestration' in Scotland".
6. Land Tenure Reform Act.
7. Feu disposition, cross-referenced to the Land Certificate in England and Wales. Feudal tenure was the old Scottish system of landholding.
8. Court decree, cross-referenced to a County Court Judgment in England and Wales: the Scottish term for a court order, including one for debt.
9. Mortgage Rights (Scotland) Act 2001, "regarding the treatment of borrowers in arrears". The Act let a borrower or occupier ask the court to delay enforcement. Its main provisions were replaced from 30 September 2010 by the Home Owner and Debtor Protection (Scotland) Act 2010, which now sets the court process and pre-action requirements for repossession of residential property in Scotland; the 2001 text is on legislation.gov.uk.

Two Scottish terms come up even though the list does not name them. A standard security is the Scottish form of mortgage over land, the equivalent of a legal charge in England and Wales. The Land Register of Scotland, kept by Registers of Scotland, is where it is recorded.

Because the syllabus gives short names, learn the principle behind each item rather than a year. Walbrook's study materials for your route are the authority on how deep each item goes. Arrears and repossession under MCOB 13 apply in both nations; our mortgage arrears guide covers the shared rules.

Exam tip: For each Scottish term, learn its England and Wales equivalent too: missives and exchange, sequestration and bankruptcy, decree and CCJ, standard security and legal charge. Questions often hinge on the pairing.

How does Scottish property tax differ?

Scottish property tax differs because a purchase pays Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, with a £145,000 nil band, first-time buyer relief worth at most £600, an 8% Additional Dwelling Supplement on the whole price, and a 30-day return.

The three residential systems, for 2026/27:

	SDLT (England and NI)	LBTT (Scotland)	LTT (Wales)
Nil band	£125,000	£145,000	£225,000
Bands above it	2% to £250,000; 5% to £925,000; 10% to £1.5m; 12% above	2% to £250,000; 5% to £325,000; 10% to £750,000; 12% above	6% to £400,000; 7.5% to £750,000; 10% to £1.5m; 12% above
First-time buyers	0% to £300,000, 5% to £500,000; none above £500,000	Nil band raised to £175,000 (saving up to £600)	No relief
Additional homes	+5 percentage points on each band	8% Additional Dwelling Supplement on the total price	Separate higher-rate bands from 5%
Return	14 days	30 days	30 days

Sources: Revenue Scotland LBTT rates, gov.uk SDLT rates and Welsh Government LTT rates.

Worked example: a £300,000 home in each nation

• Scotland (LBTT): 0% on £145,000; 2% on £105,000 (£145,001 to £250,000) = £2,100; 5% on £50,000 = £2,500. Total £4,600. A first-time buyer pays £4,000, the £600 saving.
• England (SDLT): 0% on £125,000; 2% on £125,000 = £2,500; 5% on £50,000 = £2,500. Total £5,000. A first-time buyer pays £0.
• Wales (LTT): 0% on £225,000; 6% on £75,000 = £4,500. Total £4,500, with no first-time buyer relief.

Income tax is also different for Scottish taxpayers, which matters for net income in an affordability question. On non-savings income, Scotland has six bands for 2026/27, from a 19% starter rate to a 48% top rate, listed on gov.uk's Scottish income tax page. Every figure is on our CeMAP tax tables page.

Key fact: The Scottish Additional Dwelling Supplement is 8% of the whole price for contracts from 5 December 2024. It is not added band by band, as the SDLT surcharge is.

Which version should you sit?

You should sit the version that matches where your customers' properties will be: ASSC if you will advise mainly on homes in Scotland, ASEW for England and Wales. Walbrook publishes no rule on choosing, so confirm your route when you register.

Three questions settle it for most candidates:

1. Where will the properties be? LO6 is about the process and law where the property sits, not where you live. A Glasgow-based adviser working for a firm that places most of its cases in England may be better served by ASEW.
2. What does your employer expect? If a firm is sponsoring your CeMAP, it may have a view. Ask before you register.
3. Which study materials will you get? Your Walbrook materials follow your route, so make sure the route on your registration matches the paper you intend to sit.

The qualification is CeMAP either way. The FCA's appropriate qualification tables (TC App 4.1) list CeMAP without any regional version, and we found no Walbrook statement that either paper limits where you can advise. Passing CeMAP does not by itself let you advise unsupervised: your firm must assess you as competent under the FCA's Training and Competence rules, and that assessment would cover the nation you advise in. If you are planning a career move north, our ASEW and CeMAP 3 guide covers the content that does not change.

Exam tip: If you might advise on both sides of the border, sit the paper for the larger share of your work and learn the other nation's binding point, tax and registration system as extra knowledge.

Does our CeMAP 3 practice cover Scotland?

Our CeMAP 3 practice does not cover Scotland: the ASEW route uses England and Wales scenarios, with SDLT, exchange of contracts and HM Land Registry, and there is no ASSC practice yet. LO1 to LO5 practice applies equally to both papers.

What that means for an ASSC candidate:

Part of the exam	Our ASEW practice	Useful for ASSC?
LO1 solutions and suitability	Covered	Yes
LO2 specialist lending	Covered; tax questions use SDLT	Yes, except the tax arithmetic
LO3 MCOB, ICOBS, consumer credit	Covered	Yes
LO4 ethical advice	Covered	Yes
LO5 protection	Covered	Yes
LO6 house buying and law	England and Wales only	No: use your Walbrook materials and the Scottish sections of our guides

Our weighting gives LO6 about 10% of ASEW questions. That is our allocation, not Walbrook's; Walbrook publishes no topic weighting. If you are sitting ASSC, treat every England and Wales LO6 question in our papers as a prompt to recall the Scottish equivalent. The house-buying topic drill is still useful practice in reading a process question, but its answers follow England and Wales law.

Key fact: There is no date yet for ASSC practice. Until it exists, we say plainly that the Scottish paper is not covered.

Your study plan for either version

A study plan for either version takes about 4 weeks after MRT2: three weeks on LO1 to LO5 and timed case studies, plus focused work on LO6 for your nation, then full six-case mocks until you score 85% or more three times running.

Week	ASEW candidate	ASSC candidate
1	LO1 and LO2 drills; calculations	Same, plus LBTT and ADS arithmetic
2	LO3 and LO5: MCOB, ICOBS, protection	Same
3	LO4 and LO6: exchange, completion, AC6.4 list	LO4, then the Scottish LO6: offers, missives, the nine AC6.4 items
4	Full timed mocks	Full timed mocks, translating LO6 and tax questions to Scotland

1. Start with the free CeMAP 3 diagnostic and quick practice, two whole case studies each, to measure LO1 to LO5.
2. Learn the case method on our CeMAP 3 case studies page: read the questions first, mark the figures and the customer's priorities.
3. Sit the free ASEW mock 1 under the full two hours.
4. Drill weak outcomes, then repeat with fresh mocks.

Wills, intestacy and powers of attorney can surface in a case on either paper, and some of those rules differ in Scotland; our wills and trusts guide covers the FRE1 basics. Our readiness rule, the same as in the app, is three mocks in a row at 85% or more with every topic at 80% or more; it is a guide, and there is no pass guarantee. Mocks 2 to 10 and the topic drills come with Pro, one plan for all five units.