diff --git a/Lib/test/test_warnings.py b/Lib/test/test_warnings.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_warnings.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_warnings.py
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 import StringIO
 import sys
 import unittest
-import subprocess
 from test import test_support
 from test.script_helper import assert_python_ok
 
@@ -706,34 +705,24 @@
 class EnvironmentVariableTests(BaseTest):
 
     def test_single_warning(self):
-        newenv = os.environ.copy()
-        newenv["PYTHONWARNINGS"] = "ignore::DeprecationWarning"
-        p = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable,
-                "-c", "import sys; sys.stdout.write(str(sys.warnoptions))"],
-                stdout=subprocess.PIPE, env=newenv)
-        self.assertEqual(p.communicate()[0], "['ignore::DeprecationWarning']")
-        self.assertEqual(p.wait(), 0)
+        rc, stdout, stderr = assert_python_ok("-c",
+            "import sys; sys.stdout.write(str(sys.warnoptions))",
+            PYTHONWARNINGS="ignore::DeprecationWarning")
+        self.assertEqual(stdout, "['ignore::DeprecationWarning']")
 
     def test_comma_separated_warnings(self):
-        newenv = os.environ.copy()
-        newenv["PYTHONWARNINGS"] = ("ignore::DeprecationWarning,"
-                                    "ignore::UnicodeWarning")
-        p = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable,
-                "-c", "import sys; sys.stdout.write(str(sys.warnoptions))"],
-                stdout=subprocess.PIPE, env=newenv)
-        self.assertEqual(p.communicate()[0],
-                "['ignore::DeprecationWarning', 'ignore::UnicodeWarning']")
-        self.assertEqual(p.wait(), 0)
+        rc, stdout, stderr = assert_python_ok("-c",
+            "import sys; sys.stdout.write(str(sys.warnoptions))",
+            PYTHONWARNINGS="ignore::DeprecationWarning,ignore::UnicodeWarning")
+        self.assertEqual(stdout,
+            "['ignore::DeprecationWarning', 'ignore::UnicodeWarning']")
 
     def test_envvar_and_command_line(self):
-        newenv = os.environ.copy()
-        newenv["PYTHONWARNINGS"] = "ignore::DeprecationWarning"
-        p = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, "-W" "ignore::UnicodeWarning",
-                "-c", "import sys; sys.stdout.write(str(sys.warnoptions))"],
-                stdout=subprocess.PIPE, env=newenv)
-        self.assertEqual(p.communicate()[0],
-                "['ignore::UnicodeWarning', 'ignore::DeprecationWarning']")
-        self.assertEqual(p.wait(), 0)
+        rc, stdout, stderr = assert_python_ok("-Wignore::UnicodeWarning", "-c",
+            "import sys; sys.stdout.write(str(sys.warnoptions))",
+            PYTHONWARNINGS="ignore::DeprecationWarning")
+        self.assertEqual(stdout,
+            "['ignore::UnicodeWarning', 'ignore::DeprecationWarning']")
 
 class CEnvironmentVariableTests(EnvironmentVariableTests):
     module = c_warnings