diff --git a/bin/tests/system/notify/tests.sh b/bin/tests/system/notify/tests.sh
index 5f4ad1c681..08128179cb 100644
--- a/bin/tests/system/notify/tests.sh
+++ b/bin/tests/system/notify/tests.sh
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ test_end
 # above, which should time out at some point; we need to wait for them to
 # appear in the logs in case the tests run faster than the notify timeouts
 
-test_start "checking notify retries expire within 45 seconds ($n)"
+test_start "checking notify retries expire within 45 seconds"
 nextpartreset ns3/named.run
 wait_for_log 45 'retries exceeded' ns3/named.run || ret=1
 test_end