diff --git a/spec/ruby/core/encoding/invalid_byte_sequence_error/incomplete_input_spec.rb b/spec/ruby/core/encoding/invalid_byte_sequence_error/incomplete_input_spec.rb
index e3ef3e4557..94201a9b15 100644
--- a/spec/ruby/core/encoding/invalid_byte_sequence_error/incomplete_input_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/ruby/core/encoding/invalid_byte_sequence_error/incomplete_input_spec.rb
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 require_relative '../../../spec_helper'
 
 describe "Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError#incomplete_input?" do
-
   it "returns nil by default" do
     Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError.new.incomplete_input?.should be_nil
   end
diff --git a/spec/ruby/core/exception/exit_value_spec.rb b/spec/ruby/core/exception/exit_value_spec.rb
index 8bb3cf898d..99987dd1bc 100644
--- a/spec/ruby/core/exception/exit_value_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/ruby/core/exception/exit_value_spec.rb
@@ -4,7 +4,10 @@ describe "LocalJumpError#exit_value" do
   def get_me_a_return
     Proc.new { return 42 }
   end
-  -> { get_me_a_return.call }.should raise_error(LocalJumpError) { |e|
-    e.exit_value.should == 42
-  }
+
+  it "returns the value given to return" do
+    -> { get_me_a_return.call }.should raise_error(LocalJumpError) { |e|
+      e.exit_value.should == 42
+    }
+  end
 end
diff --git a/spec/ruby/core/exception/incomplete_input_spec.rb b/spec/ruby/core/exception/incomplete_input_spec.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index 930a3f01d5..0000000000
--- a/spec/ruby/core/exception/incomplete_input_spec.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
-require_relative '../../spec_helper'
-
-describe "Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError#incomplete_input?" do
-  -> {"abc\xa4def".encode("ISO-8859-1", "EUC-JP") }.should raise_error(Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError) { |e|
-    e.incomplete_input?.should == false
-  }
-end
diff --git a/spec/ruby/core/exception/reason_spec.rb b/spec/ruby/core/exception/reason_spec.rb
index b28cbde8d9..210bbc9725 100644
--- a/spec/ruby/core/exception/reason_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/ruby/core/exception/reason_spec.rb
@@ -4,7 +4,10 @@ describe "LocalJumpError#reason" do
   def get_me_a_return
     Proc.new { return 42 }
   end
-  -> { get_me_a_return.call }.should raise_error(LocalJumpError) { |e|
-    e.reason.should == :return
-  }
+
+  it "returns 'return' for a return" do
+    -> { get_me_a_return.call }.should raise_error(LocalJumpError) { |e|
+      e.reason.should == :return
+    }
+  end
 end
diff --git a/spec/ruby/core/process/wait_spec.rb b/spec/ruby/core/process/wait_spec.rb
index f393a99e0f..44c95d6304 100644
--- a/spec/ruby/core/process/wait_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/ruby/core/process/wait_spec.rb
@@ -7,9 +7,8 @@ describe "Process.wait" do
   before :all do
     begin
       leaked = Process.waitall
-      puts "leaked before wait specs: #{leaked}" unless leaked.empty?
       # Ruby-space should not see PIDs used by mjit
-      leaked.should be_empty
+      raise "subprocesses leaked before wait specs: #{leaked}" unless leaked.empty?
     rescue NotImplementedError
     end
   end