NCERT Books for Class 12 — Stream-wise Guide (Science, Commerce, Humanities)

Class 12 has the largest NCERT catalog of any class — two-part books in most Science subjects, three History volumes, and separate books for each Economics branch. Here's the full stream-wise map, so you know exactly which books your board paper is set from.

Science Stream

• Physics Part I (8 chapters): Electric Charges and Fields through Electromagnetic Waves — the electricity and magnetism half.
• Physics Part II (6 chapters): Ray Optics, Wave Optics, Dual Nature, Atoms, Nuclei, Semiconductors.
• Chemistry Part I (5 chapters): Solutions, Electrochemistry, Chemical Kinetics, d- and f-Block, Coordination Compounds.
• Chemistry Part II (5 chapters): the Organic sequence — Haloalkanes to Biomolecules.
• Mathematics Part I & II (17 chapters total): Relations and Functions through Probability, with Calculus spanning both parts.
• Biology (13 chapters): Reproduction, Genetics and Evolution, Biology in Human Welfare, Biotechnology, Ecology.

Commerce Stream

• Accountancy I & II: partnership accounts, company accounts, and analysis of financial statements.
• Business Studies: management principles through financial markets — the case-study source book.
• Introductory Microeconomics and Introductory Macroeconomics: two separate books; the board paper draws from both.

Humanities Stream

• Themes in Indian History I, II & III: twelve themes across three volumes, from Harappa to the Constitution.
• Contemporary World Politics and Politics in India since Independence: the two Political Science papers' sources.
• Fundamentals of Human Geography plus India: People and Economy: theory and India-focused application.
• Psychology: seven chapters from intelligence to social influence.

Common Core: English and Hindi

Everyone takes English — Flamingo (prose and poetry) and Vistas (supplementary), with Kaleidoscope for the elective. Hindi runs on Antra, Aroh, Vitan and Antral depending on your course.

Why the NCERT Set Matters Beyond Boards

CBSE sets the board paper from these books, and the same chapters are the stated syllabus core for JEE, NEET and CUET. NEET Biology and board Chemistry in particular are famous for testing NCERT lines nearly verbatim — reading the textbook closely is dual-purpose preparation.

Read Them All Free

Every book above is available chapter-by-chapter on this site's Class 12 section, in the current 2026-27 edition. The CBSE Prepmaster app carries the same catalog offline — free, no ads, on iOS and Android.