diff --git a/packages/e2e-tests/test/e2e-direct.spec.ts b/packages/e2e-tests/test/e2e-direct.spec.ts
index 46a030660..b0336c9c4 100644
--- a/packages/e2e-tests/test/e2e-direct.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/e2e-tests/test/e2e-direct.spec.ts
@@ -86,8 +86,10 @@ describe('e2e direct connection', function () {
         const shell = this.startTestShell({
           args: [await rs0.connectionString()],
         });
+        await shell.waitForPrompt();
         await shell.executeLine(`db.getSiblingDB("${dbname}").dropDatabase()`);
         shell.writeInputLine('exit');
+        await shell.waitForSuccessfulExit();
       });
 
       context('connecting to secondary members directly', function () {
diff --git a/packages/e2e-tests/test/e2e.spec.ts b/packages/e2e-tests/test/e2e.spec.ts
index c6029f248..272b24e4a 100644
--- a/packages/e2e-tests/test/e2e.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/e2e-tests/test/e2e.spec.ts
@@ -310,10 +310,9 @@ describe('e2e', function () {
       // The number of newlines here matters
       shell.writeInput(
         'sleep(100);print([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10].reduce(\n(a,b) => { return a*b; }, 1))\n\n\n\n',
-        { end: true }
+        { end: true, requireFinishedInitialization: false }
       );
-      await shell.waitForSuccessfulExit();
-      shell.assertContainsOutput('3628800');
+      expect(await shell.waitForCleanOutput()).to.include('3628800');
     });
     it('ignores control characters in TTY input', async function () {
       shell = this.startTestShell({
@@ -1155,10 +1154,9 @@ describe('e2e', function () {
       });
       shell.writeInput(
         '[db.hello()].reduce(\n() => { return 11111*11111; },0)\n\n\n',
-        { end: true }
+        { end: true, requireFinishedInitialization: false }
       );
-      await shell.waitForSuccessfulExit();
-      shell.assertContainsOutput('123454321');
+      expect(await shell.waitForCleanOutput()).to.include('123454321');
     });
   });
 
@@ -2605,9 +2603,7 @@ describe('e2e', function () {
 
     it('allows connecting to a host and running commands against it', async function () {
       const connectionString = await testServer.connectionString();
-      await eventually(() => {
-        shell.assertContainsOutput('Please enter a MongoDB connection string');
-      });
+      await shell.waitForLine(/Please enter a MongoDB connection string/);
       shell.writeInputLine(connectionString);
       await shell.waitForPrompt();
 
diff --git a/packages/e2e-tests/test/test-shell.ts b/packages/e2e-tests/test/test-shell.ts
index f3a310ae2..bba35019f 100644
--- a/packages/e2e-tests/test/test-shell.ts
+++ b/packages/e2e-tests/test/test-shell.ts
@@ -20,6 +20,16 @@ type SignalType = ChildProcess extends { kill: (signal: infer T) => any }
   ? T
   : never;
 
+export interface TestShellInputOptions {
+  end?: boolean;
+  requireFinishedInitialization?: boolean;
+}
+
+export interface TestShellWaitForPromptOptions {
+  timeout?: number;
+  promptPattern?: RegExp;
+}
+
 // Assume that prompt strings are those that end in '> ' but do not contain
 // < or > (so that e.g. '- <repl>' in a stack trace is not considered a prompt).
 const PROMPT_PATTERN = /^([^<>]*> ?)+$/m;
@@ -152,6 +162,7 @@ export class TestShell {
   private _output: string;
   private _rawOutput: string;
   private _onClose: Promise<number>;
+  private _initializationKnownToBeFinished = false;
 
   constructor(
     shellProcess: ChildProcessWithoutNullStreams,
@@ -205,11 +216,14 @@ export class TestShell {
         });
       }
     });
+    // Not technically true, but in practice the patterns we wait for
+    // are sufficient to indicate that initialization is done.
+    this._initializationKnownToBeFinished = true;
   }
 
   async waitForPrompt(
     start = 0,
-    opts: { timeout?: number; promptPattern?: RegExp } = {}
+    opts: TestShellWaitForPromptOptions = {}
   ): Promise<void> {
     await eventually(
       () => {
@@ -247,10 +261,13 @@ export class TestShell {
       },
       { ...opts }
     );
+    this._initializationKnownToBeFinished = true;
   }
 
-  waitForAnyExit(): Promise<number> {
-    return this._onClose;
+  async waitForAnyExit(): Promise<number> {
+    const code = await this._onClose;
+    this._initializationKnownToBeFinished = true;
+    return code;
   }
 
   async waitForSuccessfulExit(): Promise<void> {
@@ -267,7 +284,7 @@ export class TestShell {
   }
 
   async waitForPromptOrExit(
-    opts: { timeout?: number; start?: number } = {}
+    opts: TestShellWaitForPromptOptions & { start?: number } = {}
   ): Promise<TestShellStartupResult> {
     return Promise.race([
       this.waitForPrompt(opts.start ?? 0, opts).then(
@@ -283,21 +300,29 @@ export class TestShell {
     this._process.kill(signal);
   }
 
-  writeInput(chars: string, { end = false } = {}): void {
+  writeInput(
+    chars: string,
+    {
+      end = false,
+      requireFinishedInitialization = true,
+    }: TestShellInputOptions = {}
+  ): void {
+    if (requireFinishedInitialization && !this._initializationKnownToBeFinished)
+      throw new Error('Wait for shell to be initialized before writing input');
     this._process.stdin.write(chars);
     if (end) this._process.stdin.end();
   }
 
-  writeInputLine(chars: string): void {
-    this.writeInput(`${chars}\n`);
+  writeInputLine(chars: string, options?: TestShellInputOptions): void {
+    this.writeInput(`${chars}\n`, options);
   }
 
   async executeLine(
     line: string,
-    opts: { timeout?: number; promptPattern?: RegExp } = {}
+    opts: TestShellWaitForPromptOptions & TestShellInputOptions = {}
   ): Promise<string> {
     const previousOutputLength = this._output.length;
-    this.writeInputLine(line);
+    this.writeInputLine(line, opts);
     await this.waitForPrompt(previousOutputLength, opts);
     return this._output.slice(previousOutputLength);
   }