diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/util/collection/ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/util/collection/ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite.scala
index 7de5df6e1c8bd..67fbd337341ca 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/util/collection/ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/util/collection/ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite.scala
@@ -30,8 +30,19 @@ class ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   private def mergeValue(buffer: ArrayBuffer[Int], i: Int) = buffer += i
   private def mergeCombiners(buf1: ArrayBuffer[Int], buf2: ArrayBuffer[Int]) = buf1 ++= buf2
 
+  private def createSparkConf(loadDefaults: Boolean): SparkConf = {
+    val conf = new SparkConf(loadDefaults)
+    // Make the Java serializer write a reset instruction (TC_RESET) after each object to test
+    // for a bug we had with bytes written past the last object in a batch (SPARK-2792)
+    conf.set("spark.serializer.objectStreamReset", "0")
+    conf.set("spark.serializer", "org.apache.spark.serializer.JavaSerializer")
+    // Ensure that we actually have multiple batches per spill file
+    conf.set("spark.shuffle.spill.batchSize", "10")
+    conf
+  }
+
   test("simple insert") {
-    val conf = new SparkConf(false)
+    val conf = createSparkConf(false)
     sc = new SparkContext("local", "test", conf)
 
     val map = new ExternalAppendOnlyMap[Int, Int, ArrayBuffer[Int]](createCombiner,
@@ -57,7 +68,7 @@ class ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   }
 
   test("insert with collision") {
-    val conf = new SparkConf(false)
+    val conf = createSparkConf(false)
     sc = new SparkContext("local", "test", conf)
 
     val map = new ExternalAppendOnlyMap[Int, Int, ArrayBuffer[Int]](createCombiner,
@@ -80,7 +91,7 @@ class ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   }
 
   test("ordering") {
-    val conf = new SparkConf(false)
+    val conf = createSparkConf(false)
     sc = new SparkContext("local", "test", conf)
 
     val map1 = new ExternalAppendOnlyMap[Int, Int, ArrayBuffer[Int]](createCombiner,
@@ -125,7 +136,7 @@ class ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   }
 
   test("null keys and values") {
-    val conf = new SparkConf(false)
+    val conf = createSparkConf(false)
     sc = new SparkContext("local", "test", conf)
 
     val map = new ExternalAppendOnlyMap[Int, Int, ArrayBuffer[Int]](createCombiner,
@@ -166,7 +177,7 @@ class ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   }
 
   test("simple aggregator") {
-    val conf = new SparkConf(false)
+    val conf = createSparkConf(false)
     sc = new SparkContext("local", "test", conf)
 
     // reduceByKey
@@ -181,7 +192,7 @@ class ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   }
 
   test("simple cogroup") {
-    val conf = new SparkConf(false)
+    val conf = createSparkConf(false)
     sc = new SparkContext("local", "test", conf)
     val rdd1 = sc.parallelize(1 to 4).map(i => (i, i))
     val rdd2 = sc.parallelize(1 to 4).map(i => (i%2, i))
@@ -199,7 +210,7 @@ class ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   }
 
   test("spilling") {
-    val conf = new SparkConf(true)  // Load defaults, otherwise SPARK_HOME is not found
+    val conf = createSparkConf(true)  // Load defaults, otherwise SPARK_HOME is not found
     conf.set("spark.shuffle.memoryFraction", "0.001")
     sc = new SparkContext("local-cluster[1,1,512]", "test", conf)
 
@@ -249,7 +260,7 @@ class ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   }
 
   test("spilling with hash collisions") {
-    val conf = new SparkConf(true)
+    val conf = createSparkConf(true)
     conf.set("spark.shuffle.memoryFraction", "0.001")
     sc = new SparkContext("local-cluster[1,1,512]", "test", conf)
 
@@ -304,7 +315,7 @@ class ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   }
 
   test("spilling with many hash collisions") {
-    val conf = new SparkConf(true)
+    val conf = createSparkConf(true)
     conf.set("spark.shuffle.memoryFraction", "0.0001")
     sc = new SparkContext("local-cluster[1,1,512]", "test", conf)
 
@@ -329,7 +340,7 @@ class ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   }
 
   test("spilling with hash collisions using the Int.MaxValue key") {
-    val conf = new SparkConf(true)
+    val conf = createSparkConf(true)
     conf.set("spark.shuffle.memoryFraction", "0.001")
     sc = new SparkContext("local-cluster[1,1,512]", "test", conf)
 
@@ -347,7 +358,7 @@ class ExternalAppendOnlyMapSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
   }
 
   test("spilling with null keys and values") {
-    val conf = new SparkConf(true)
+    val conf = createSparkConf(true)
     conf.set("spark.shuffle.memoryFraction", "0.001")
     sc = new SparkContext("local-cluster[1,1,512]", "test", conf)