To get assessed is an everyday experience for pupils and of high relevance for the individual as grades and certificates allow or restrict the access to further educational opportunities and thereby future life chances. On the normative level, the allocation of life chances is in Sweden, as in all modern and democratic societies, based on the meritocratic principle (Hadjar, 2008) and on the other hand do ascriptive aspects like gender, socioeconomic or sociocultural background continue to play a massive role for Swedish pupils’ results in school (Skolverket, 2013). Due to the far-reaching consequences for the individual, assessment has to be perceived as fair. But what is perceived as fair assessment can differ between individuals and different contexts pupils are involved in. The Ph.D. project “Just assessment in school – pupils´ conceptions in Sweden and Germany” investigates what pupils perceive as fair assessment by using a “contextual comparison” (Steiner-Khamsi, 2010) .The study wants to contribute to a better understanding of which conceptions of justice Swedish and German pupils have regarding assessment, how pupils perceive getting assessed and under which conditions the assessment is considered as fair in different contexts. In addition to the contextual comparison as methodological frame, the Grounded Theory Methodology (Strauss/Corbin, 1990) is applied in combination with Focus Group interviews (Morgan, 1988). Besides the presentation of the Ph.D. project, first preliminary findings from Focus Group interviews with Swedish pupils attending grade nine shall be presented. These will provide a first insight in parts of Swedish pupils’ justice conceptions about assessment since the implementation of the new grading scale as a part of the wide school reform in Sweden year 2011.