A1.2 Nucleic acids
Explore how nucleotide components, bonding, base pairing and sequence give DNA and RNA their structures, information capacity, shared code and experimental significance.
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2025
- Topic
- A1.2
- Level
- HL
What you’ll learn
15 learning objectivesChoose one objective for a focused lesson, or study the complete topic.
Exam analysis
An aggregate view of how the complete A1.2 Nucleic acids appears across past papers.
Chance of appearing40%of analysed past papers
Latest appearanceNovember 2025
Most common paperPaper1
Most tested objectives
- A1.2.13 (HL)—Structure of a nucleosome15 questions
- A1.2.6—DNA as a double helix14 questions
- A1.2.14 (HL)—Hershey-Chase experiment8 questions
Common question formats
- Diagram interpretation
- Definition or recall
- Structured response
- Data analysis
- Calculation
- Comparison
- Graph interpretation
Exam question appearances
November 2025Paper2 HL · TZ17(a)[ 4 ]A1.2.9—Diversity of DNA base sequences
November 2025Paper1A HL · TZ12[ 1 ]A1.2.14 (HL)—Hershey-Chase experiment
November 2025Paper1B HL · TZ11(b)[ 3 ]A1.2.13 (HL)—Structure of a nucleosome
November 2025Paper1B HL · TZ11(a)(i)[ 1 ]A1.2.8—Complementary base pairing
November 2025Paper1A HL · TZ31[ 1 ]A1.2.6—DNA as a double helix
Practice this topic
1 original exam-style questions based on the patterns above.
Coverage 2012–2025 · Updated 14 Jul 2026