diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ContextCleanerSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ContextCleanerSuite.scala
index c7868ddcf770f..cb30e1f4e63a1 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ContextCleanerSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ContextCleanerSuite.scala
@@ -183,6 +183,7 @@ class ContextCleanerSuite extends ContextCleanerSuiteBase {
     }
 
     // Test that GC causes shuffle cleanup after dereferencing the RDD
+    rdd.count()  // Defeat any early collection of rdd variable by the JVM
     val postGCTester = new CleanerTester(sc, shuffleIds = Seq(0))
     rdd = null  // Make RDD out of scope, so that corresponding shuffle goes out of scope
     runGC()