diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
index 39758e94f4..ab8351e55e 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
@@ -238,6 +238,11 @@ private[spark] object PythonRDD {
   }
 
   def writeIteratorToPickleFile[T](items: java.util.Iterator[T], filename: String) {
+    import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
+    writeIteratorToPickleFile(items.asScala, filename)
+  }
+
+  def writeIteratorToPickleFile[T](items: Iterator[T], filename: String) {
     val file = new DataOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(filename))
     for (item <- items) {
       writeAsPickle(item, file)
@@ -245,8 +250,10 @@ private[spark] object PythonRDD {
     file.close()
   }
 
-  def takePartition[T](rdd: RDD[T], partition: Int): java.util.Iterator[T] =
-    rdd.context.runJob(rdd, ((x: Iterator[T]) => x), Seq(partition), true).head
+  def takePartition[T](rdd: RDD[T], partition: Int): Iterator[T] = {
+    implicit val cm : ClassManifest[T] = rdd.elementClassManifest
+    rdd.context.runJob(rdd, ((x: Iterator[T]) => x.toArray), Seq(partition), true).head.iterator
+  }
 }
 
 private object Pickle {
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/spark/MapOutputTrackerSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/spark/MapOutputTrackerSuite.scala
index f4e7ec39fe..dd19442dcb 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/spark/MapOutputTrackerSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/spark/MapOutputTrackerSuite.scala
@@ -79,8 +79,7 @@ class MapOutputTrackerSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   test("remote fetch") {
     try {
       System.clearProperty("spark.driver.host")  // In case some previous test had set it
-      val (actorSystem, boundPort) =
-        AkkaUtils.createActorSystem("test", "localhost", 0)
+      val (actorSystem, boundPort) = AkkaUtils.createActorSystem("spark", "localhost", 0)
       System.setProperty("spark.driver.port", boundPort.toString)
       val masterTracker = new MapOutputTracker(actorSystem, true)
       val slaveTracker = new MapOutputTracker(actorSystem, false)
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/spark/RDDSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/spark/RDDSuite.scala
index 89a3687386..fe7deb10d6 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/spark/RDDSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/spark/RDDSuite.scala
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ class RDDSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
     val dups = sc.makeRDD(Array(1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4), 2)
     assert(dups.distinct().count() === 4)
     assert(dups.distinct.count === 4)  // Can distinct and count be called without parentheses?
-    assert(dups.distinct().collect === dups.distinct().collect)
+    assert(dups.distinct.collect === dups.distinct().collect)
     assert(dups.distinct(2).collect === dups.distinct().collect)
     assert(nums.reduce(_ + _) === 10)
     assert(nums.fold(0)(_ + _) === 10)
diff --git a/python/pyspark/accumulators.py b/python/pyspark/accumulators.py
index 61fcbbd376..3e9d7d36da 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/accumulators.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/accumulators.py
@@ -196,12 +196,3 @@ def _start_update_server():
     thread.daemon = True
     thread.start()
     return server
-
-
-def _test():
-    import doctest
-    doctest.testmod()
-
-
-if __name__ == "__main__":
-    _test()
diff --git a/python/pyspark/broadcast.py b/python/pyspark/broadcast.py
index 93876fa738..def810dd46 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/broadcast.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/broadcast.py
@@ -37,12 +37,3 @@ class Broadcast(object):
     def __reduce__(self):
         self._pickle_registry.add(self)
         return (_from_id, (self.bid, ))
-
-
-def _test():
-    import doctest
-    doctest.testmod()
-
-
-if __name__ == "__main__":
-    _test()
diff --git a/python/pyspark/context.py b/python/pyspark/context.py
index 6831f9b7f8..657fe6f989 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/context.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/context.py
@@ -256,8 +256,10 @@ def _test():
     globs['sc'] = SparkContext('local[4]', 'PythonTest', batchSize=2)
     globs['tempdir'] = tempfile.mkdtemp()
     atexit.register(lambda: shutil.rmtree(globs['tempdir']))
-    doctest.testmod(globs=globs)
+    (failure_count, test_count) = doctest.testmod(globs=globs)
     globs['sc'].stop()
+    if failure_count:
+        exit(-1)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
diff --git a/python/pyspark/rdd.py b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
index 41ea6e6e14..4cda6cf661 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/rdd.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
@@ -372,6 +372,10 @@ class RDD(object):
         items = []
         for partition in range(self._jrdd.splits().size()):
             iterator = self.ctx._takePartition(self._jrdd.rdd(), partition)
+            # Each item in the iterator is a string, Python object, batch of
+            # Python objects.  Regardless, it is sufficient to take `num`
+            # of these objects in order to collect `num` Python objects:
+            iterator = iterator.take(num)
             items.extend(self._collect_iterator_through_file(iterator))
             if len(items) >= num:
                 break
@@ -748,8 +752,10 @@ def _test():
     # The small batch size here ensures that we see multiple batches,
     # even in these small test examples:
     globs['sc'] = SparkContext('local[4]', 'PythonTest', batchSize=2)
-    doctest.testmod(globs=globs)
+    (failure_count, test_count) = doctest.testmod(globs=globs)
     globs['sc'].stop()
+    if failure_count:
+        exit(-1)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":