Soon Listing was attending mathematics courses given by Gauss and he was quickly spotted by Gauss as being both a very able and a very hard working student.
Sa lalong madaling panahon Listing ay dumadalo sa matematika kurso na ibinigay ng gauss at siya ay mabilis na batik-batik sa pamamagitan ng gauss bilang parehong ng isang napaka-able at napakahirap ng trabaho ng isang mag-aaral.