diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_errors.py b/pandas/tests/test_errors.py
index 939ea8a64d94d..d72c00ceb0045 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_errors.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_errors.py
@@ -36,10 +36,9 @@ def test_exception_importable(exc):
 def test_catch_oob():
     from pandas import errors
 
-    try:
+    msg = "Out of bounds nanosecond timestamp: 1500-01-01 00:00:00"
+    with pytest.raises(errors.OutOfBoundsDatetime, match=msg):
         pd.Timestamp("15000101")
-    except errors.OutOfBoundsDatetime:
-        pass
 
 
 class Foo:
diff --git a/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_frame_equal.py b/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_frame_equal.py
index 23c845f2b2795..3090343ba2fd9 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_frame_equal.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_frame_equal.py
@@ -46,13 +46,9 @@ def _assert_not_frame_equal(a, b, **kwargs):
     kwargs : dict
         The arguments passed to `tm.assert_frame_equal`.
     """
-    try:
+    msg = "The two DataFrames were equal when they shouldn't have been"
+    with pytest.raises(AssertionError, match=msg):
         tm.assert_frame_equal(a, b, **kwargs)
-        msg = "The two DataFrames were equal when they shouldn't have been"
-
-        pytest.fail(msg=msg)
-    except AssertionError:
-        pass
 
 
 def _assert_not_frame_equal_both(a, b, **kwargs):