diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index d2c4ab8ecce..6cb17547397 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -390,6 +390,9 @@ Release 2.7.0 - UNRELEASED
     MAPREDUCE-2815. JavaDoc does not generate correctly for
     MultithreadedMapRunner. (Chris Palmer via aajisaka)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-6223. TestJobConf#testNegativeValueForTaskVmem failures. 
+    (Varun Saxena via kasha)
+
 Release 2.6.1 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/JobConf.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/JobConf.java
index 98a643f112d..315c8299872 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/JobConf.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/JobConf.java
@@ -1826,8 +1826,7 @@ public String getJobLocalDir() {
   public long getMemoryForMapTask() {
     long value = getDeprecatedMemoryValue();
     if (value < 0) {
-      return getLong(JobConf.MAPRED_JOB_MAP_MEMORY_MB_PROPERTY,
-          JobContext.DEFAULT_MAP_MEMORY_MB);
+      return getMemoryRequired(TaskType.MAP);
     }
     return value;
   }
@@ -1853,8 +1852,7 @@ public void setMemoryForMapTask(long mem) {
   public long getMemoryForReduceTask() {
     long value = getDeprecatedMemoryValue();
     if (value < 0) {
-      return getLong(JobConf.MAPRED_JOB_REDUCE_MEMORY_MB_PROPERTY,
-          JobContext.DEFAULT_REDUCE_MEMORY_MB);
+      return getMemoryRequired(TaskType.REDUCE);
     }
     return value;
   }
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestJobConf.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestJobConf.java
index e380d9200cf..f67ba1fb16b 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestJobConf.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestJobConf.java
@@ -19,9 +19,7 @@
 
 import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Test;
-
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.JobConf;
-import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.JobContext;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.MRJobConfig;
 
 public class TestJobConf {
@@ -87,8 +85,10 @@ public void testMemoryConfigForMapOrReduceTask(){
     configuration.set("mapred.task.maxvmem" , String.valueOf(-1));
     configuration.set(MRJobConfig.MAP_MEMORY_MB,"-1");
     configuration.set(MRJobConfig.REDUCE_MEMORY_MB,"-1");
-    Assert.assertEquals(configuration.getMemoryForMapTask(),-1);
-    Assert.assertEquals(configuration.getMemoryForReduceTask(),-1);    
+    Assert.assertEquals(configuration.getMemoryForMapTask(),
+        MRJobConfig.DEFAULT_MAP_MEMORY_MB);
+    Assert.assertEquals(configuration.getMemoryForReduceTask(),
+        MRJobConfig.DEFAULT_REDUCE_MEMORY_MB);
 
     configuration = new JobConf();
     configuration.set("mapred.task.maxvmem" , String.valueOf(2*1024 * 1024));
@@ -96,7 +96,6 @@ public void testMemoryConfigForMapOrReduceTask(){
     configuration.set(MRJobConfig.REDUCE_MEMORY_MB, "3");
     Assert.assertEquals(configuration.getMemoryForMapTask(),2);
     Assert.assertEquals(configuration.getMemoryForReduceTask(),2);
-    
   }
 
   /**
@@ -106,7 +105,7 @@ public void testMemoryConfigForMapOrReduceTask(){
   @Test
   public void testNegativeValueForTaskVmem() {
     JobConf configuration = new JobConf();
-    
+
     configuration.set(JobConf.MAPRED_TASK_MAXVMEM_PROPERTY, "-3");
     Assert.assertEquals(MRJobConfig.DEFAULT_MAP_MEMORY_MB,
         configuration.getMemoryForMapTask());
@@ -129,10 +128,12 @@ public void testNegativeValuesForMemoryParams() {
         
     configuration.set(MRJobConfig.MAP_MEMORY_MB, "-5");
     configuration.set(MRJobConfig.REDUCE_MEMORY_MB, "-6");
-    Assert.assertEquals(-5, configuration.getMemoryForMapTask());
-    Assert.assertEquals(-6, configuration.getMemoryForReduceTask());
+    Assert.assertEquals(MRJobConfig.DEFAULT_MAP_MEMORY_MB,
+        configuration.getMemoryForMapTask());
+    Assert.assertEquals(MRJobConfig.DEFAULT_REDUCE_MEMORY_MB,
+        configuration.getMemoryForReduceTask());
   }
-  
+
   /**
    *   Test deprecated accessor and mutator method for mapred.task.maxvmem
    */
@@ -144,13 +145,13 @@ public void testMaxVirtualMemoryForTask() {
     configuration.set(MRJobConfig.MAP_MEMORY_MB, String.valueOf(300));
     configuration.set(MRJobConfig.REDUCE_MEMORY_MB, String.valueOf(-1));
     Assert.assertEquals(
-      configuration.getMaxVirtualMemoryForTask(), 300 * 1024 * 1024);
+      configuration.getMaxVirtualMemoryForTask(), 1024 * 1024 * 1024);
 
     configuration = new JobConf();
     configuration.set(MRJobConfig.MAP_MEMORY_MB, String.valueOf(-1));
     configuration.set(MRJobConfig.REDUCE_MEMORY_MB, String.valueOf(200));
     Assert.assertEquals(
-      configuration.getMaxVirtualMemoryForTask(), 200 * 1024 * 1024);
+      configuration.getMaxVirtualMemoryForTask(), 1024 * 1024 * 1024);
 
     configuration = new JobConf();
     configuration.set(MRJobConfig.MAP_MEMORY_MB, String.valueOf(-1));