diff --git a/IPython/testing/tools.py b/IPython/testing/tools.py
index 01882a9..4947191 100644
--- a/IPython/testing/tools.py
+++ b/IPython/testing/tools.py
@@ -213,7 +213,18 @@ def ipexec(fname, options=None):
     full_fname = os.path.join(test_dir, fname)
     full_cmd = '%s %s %s' % (ipython_cmd, cmdargs, full_fname)
     #print >> sys.stderr, 'FULL CMD:', full_cmd # dbg
-    return getoutputerror(full_cmd)
+    out = getoutputerror(full_cmd)
+    # `import readline` causes 'ESC[?1034h' to be the first output sometimes,
+    # so strip that off the front of the first line if it is found
+    if out:
+        first = out[0]
+        m = re.match(r'\x1b\[[^h]+h', first)
+        if m:
+            # strip initial readline escape
+            out = list(out)
+            out[0] = first[len(m.group()):]
+            out = tuple(out)
+    return out
 
 
 def ipexec_validate(fname, expected_out, expected_err='',