diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index 6f1dd6867..900caa382 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
-spec_dir = File.expand_path("..", __FILE__)
-lib_dir = File.expand_path("../lib", spec_dir)
-
-$LOAD_PATH.unshift(lib_dir)
+$LOAD_PATH.unshift(File.expand_path('../../lib', __FILE__))
 $LOAD_PATH.uniq!
 
+require 'rspec'
+
 RSpec.configure do |config|
 end
diff --git a/tasks/spec.rake b/tasks/spec.rake
index 858c874f2..7e58adfbd 100644
--- a/tasks/spec.rake
+++ b/tasks/spec.rake
@@ -29,26 +29,13 @@ namespace :spec do
       t.rcov = false
     end
     t.rcov_opts = %w(
-        --exclude lib/google/api_client/environment.rb,
-                  lib/compat,
-                  spec,
-                  .rvm/gems,
-                  1.8/gems,
-                  1.9/gems,
-                  .rvm,
-                  /Library/Ruby
+         --exclude gems/
+         --exclude spec/
+         --exclude lib/google/api_client/environment.rb
+         --exclude lib/compat
     )
   end
 
-  if RCOV_ENABLED
-    RCov::VerifyTask.new(:verify) do |t|
-      t.threshold = 65.0
-      t.index_html = 'coverage/index.html'
-    end
-
-    task :verify => :rcov
-  end
-
   namespace :rcov do
     desc 'Browse the code coverage report.'
     task :browse => 'spec:rcov' do