diff --git a/Lib/test/support.py b/Lib/test/support.py
index 38ea107183c..f24adc8816a 100644
--- a/Lib/test/support.py
+++ b/Lib/test/support.py
@@ -735,7 +735,7 @@ def wrapper(self):
                 # to make sure they work. We still want to avoid using
                 # too much memory, though, but we do that noisily.
                 maxsize = 5147
-                self.failIf(maxsize * memuse + overhead > 20 * _1M)
+                self.assertFalse(maxsize * memuse + overhead > 20 * _1M)
             else:
                 maxsize = int((max_memuse - overhead) / memuse)
                 if maxsize < minsize: