{"id":1064,"date":"2014-12-26T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-26T17:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:46:45","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:46:45","slug":"toefl-listening-numbers-you-dont-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-listening-numbers-you-dont-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"TOEFL Listening: Numbers You Don\u2019t Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nThe other day, I was helping a very brilliant ESL student of mine. She was writing an English-language research report on molecular biology. I was a little embarrassed as I struggled through the charts, graphs and detailed information in her writing. Honestly, I couldn\u2019t understand most of her scientific calculations and statistics. She was very forgiving. She knows that I\u2019m an English teacher, not a science teacher.<\/p>\n

Similarly, you take TOEFL Listening as an English student, not as a student of science, economics, history, etc\u2026. When you listen to the lectures, you may need to understand new subject-related vocabulary from context. However, there are certain subject-specific details that the makers of the TOEFL don\u2019t expect you to learn or remember. Numeric information is especially unlikely to be tested in TOEFL Listening questions. Take, for instance, this short clip<\/a> from the Official Guide to the TOEFL Test.<\/p>\n

In the clip, the lecturer throws out a LOT of numbers, doesn\u2019t she? 50 shoots, 80 shoots, fifty centimeters height, five square meters surface area, and so on. None of these numbers come up in the TOEFL questions for this lecture. Only one number she mentions in the whole lecture comes up in the questions. Listen to her say the number here<\/a>. Now, let\u2019s look at the question:<\/p>\n

27. Listen again to part of the lecture. Then answer the question.<\/em><\/p>\n

What does the professor intend to explain?<\/p>\n

() Why a mistake made in the textbooks was never corrected
\n() Why she does not believe that the roots of rye plants extend to 1,000 kilometers
\n() How the roots of rye plants develop to such great length
\n() How plants grown in water make use of fertilizer<\/p>\n

Here, numeric information does appear in a TOEFL Listening question. However, even in this question, you don\u2019t need numeric information to answer correctly. The second option, \u201cWhy she does not believe that the roots of rye plants extend to 1,000 kilometers,\u201d is a \u201cfalse friend.\u201d (\u201cFalse friends\u201d<\/a> are incorrect answers that sound like they could be right, because they take a lot of words directly from the lecture or reading.) The lecturer never says she doesn\u2019t currently believe that rye roots extend that far. She only says that she didn\u2019t believe it when she first read it. Because she says \u201clet me explain to you about this rye plant\u201d at the end of the sound clip, you can know that the third answer is correct. She has talked about the size of the roots, and now she\u2019ll offer further explanation.<\/p>\n

So, when you\u2019re taking notes (mental or written) on TOEFL lectures, do yourself a favor; don\u2019t write down most of the numbers you hear. There is one exception to this general rule. Numbers that relate to history, years, and dates can be important, and do come up in TOEFL Listening answers. But even then, you are unlikely to be asked to identify an exact calendar date or year among the answer choices. Instead, the question itself my reference a more exact time frame from the lecture. So for example, if the lecture refers to “1888, ten years before a groundbreaking scientific discovery,” you may get a question that asks you what happened “before” that discovery, or a question that references “the late 1800s.” <\/p>\n

Hopefully this has been helpful. For even more Listening tips and tricks, be sure to check out Magoosh’s complete guide to TOEFL Listening<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day, I was helping a very brilliant ESL student of mine. She was writing an English-language research report on molecular biology. I was a little embarrassed as I struggled through the charts, graphs and detailed information in her writing. Honestly, I couldn\u2019t understand most of her scientific calculations and statistics. She was very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13616],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-listening"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTOEFL Listening: Numbers You Don\u2019t Need to Know - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-listening-numbers-you-dont-need-to-know\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TOEFL Listening: Numbers You Don\u2019t Need to Know\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The other day, I was helping a very brilliant ESL student of mine. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C50&q=Recine+magoosh&btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}