diff --git a/badges/tests/behat/award_badge.feature b/badges/tests/behat/award_badge.feature
index 4bb0a663dad..efbab25bd9a 100644
--- a/badges/tests/behat/award_badge.feature
+++ b/badges/tests/behat/award_badge.feature
@@ -221,16 +221,13 @@ Feature: Award badges
     And I follow "Course 1"
     And I press "Mark as complete: Test assignment name"
     And I log out
-    And I log in as "admin"
-    # We can't wait for cron to happen, so the admin manually triggers it.
-    And I trigger cron
-    # The admin needs to trigger cron twice to see the completion status as completed.
-    # We wait more than 1 minute because of the next cron run scheduled time.
-    And I wait "61" seconds
-    And I trigger cron
-    # Finally the admin goes back to homepage to continue the user story.
-    And I am on site homepage
-    And I log out
+    # Completion cron won't mark the whole course completed unless the
+    # individual criteria was marked completed more than a second ago. So
+    # run it twice, first to mark the criteria and second for the course.
+    And I run the scheduled task "core\task\completion_regular_task"
+    And I wait "1" seconds
+    And I run the scheduled task "core\task\completion_regular_task"
+    # The student should now see their badge.
     And I log in as "student1"
     And I follow "Profile" in the user menu
     Then I should see "Course Badge"
diff --git a/lib/moodlelib.php b/lib/moodlelib.php
index 93075e4b036..89ae5fb67ad 100644
--- a/lib/moodlelib.php
+++ b/lib/moodlelib.php
@@ -8404,7 +8404,7 @@ function address_in_subnet($addr, $subnetstr) {
  */
 function mtrace($string, $eol="\n", $sleep=0) {
 
-    if (defined('STDOUT') and !PHPUNIT_TEST) {
+    if (defined('STDOUT') && !PHPUNIT_TEST && !defined('BEHAT_TEST')) {
         fwrite(STDOUT, $string.$eol);
     } else {
         echo $string . $eol;
diff --git a/lib/tests/behat/behat_general.php b/lib/tests/behat/behat_general.php
index 5feaa377ddd..57c63553e09 100644
--- a/lib/tests/behat/behat_general.php
+++ b/lib/tests/behat/behat_general.php
@@ -935,6 +935,63 @@ class behat_general extends behat_base {
         $this->getSession()->visit($this->locate_path('/admin/cron.php'));
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Runs a scheduled task immediately, given full class name.
+     *
+     * This is faster and more reliable than running cron (running cron won't
+     * work more than once in the same test, for instance). However it is
+     * a little less 'realistic'.
+     *
+     * While the task is running, we suppress mtrace output because it makes
+     * the Behat result look ugly.
+     *
+     * Note: Most of the code relating to running a task is based on
+     * admin/tool/task/cli/schedule_task.php.
+     *
+     * @Given /^I run the scheduled task "(?P<task_name>[^"]+)"$/
+     * @param string $taskname Name of task e.g. 'mod_whatever\task\do_something'
+     */
+    public function i_run_the_scheduled_task($taskname) {
+        $task = \core\task\manager::get_scheduled_task($taskname);
+        if (!$task) {
+            throw new DriverException('The "' . $taskname . '" scheduled task does not exist');
+        }
+
+        // Do setup for cron task.
+        raise_memory_limit(MEMORY_EXTRA);
+        cron_setup_user();
+
+        // Get lock.
+        $cronlockfactory = \core\lock\lock_config::get_lock_factory('cron');
+        if (!$cronlock = $cronlockfactory->get_lock('core_cron', 10)) {
+            throw new DriverException('Unable to obtain core_cron lock for scheduled task');
+        }
+        if (!$lock = $cronlockfactory->get_lock('\\' . get_class($task), 10)) {
+            $cronlock->release();
+            throw new DriverException('Unable to obtain task lock for scheduled task');
+        }
+        $task->set_lock($lock);
+        if (!$task->is_blocking()) {
+            $cronlock->release();
+        } else {
+            $task->set_cron_lock($cronlock);
+        }
+
+        try {
+            // Discard task output as not appropriate for Behat output!
+            ob_start();
+            $task->execute();
+            ob_end_clean();
+
+            // Mark task complete.
+            \core\task\manager::scheduled_task_complete($task);
+        } catch (Exception $e) {
+            // Mark task failed and throw exception.
+            \core\task\manager::scheduled_task_failed($task);
+            throw new DriverException('The "' . $taskname . '" scheduled task failed', 0, $e);
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Checks that an element and selector type exists in another element and selector type on the current page.
      *