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
- SL
What you’ll learn
10 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 appearing36%of analysed past papers
Latest appearanceNovember 2025
Most common paperPaper1
Most tested objectives
- A1.2.6—DNA as a double helix12 questions
- A1.2.2—Components of a nucleotide9 questions
- A1.2.3—Sugar-phosphate bonding9 questions
Common question formats
- Diagram interpretation
- Definition or recall
- Structured response
- Data analysis
- Calculation
- Comparison
- Graph interpretation
Exam question appearances
November 2025Paper2 SL · TZ32(c)[ 2 ]A1.2.7—Differences between DNA and RNA
November 2025Paper2 SL · TZ32(a)[ 2 ]A1.2.15 (HL)—Chargaff's data
May 2025Paper2 SL · TZ15(b)[ 2 ]A1.2.7—Differences between DNA and RNA
May 2025Paper1B SL · TZ14(c)[ 1 ]A1.2.13 (HL)—Structure of a nucleosome
May 2025Paper1A SL · TZ32[ 1 ]A1.2.9—Diversity of DNA base sequences
Coverage 2010–2025 · Updated 14 Jul 2026