diff --git a/tests/common.py b/tests/common.py
index ec90ceb7b..fee04ab1b 100644
--- a/tests/common.py
+++ b/tests/common.py
@@ -286,19 +286,18 @@ def check_tf_min_version(min_required_version, message=""):
 
 
 def skip_tf_versions(excluded_versions, message=""):
-    """ Skip if tf_version SEMANTICALLY matches any of excluded_versions. """
+    """ Skip if tf_version matches any of excluded_versions. """
+    if not isinstance(excluded_versions, list):
+        excluded_versions = [excluded_versions]
     config = get_test_config()
     condition = False
     reason = _append_message("conversion excludes tf {}".format(excluded_versions), message)
 
-    current_tokens = str(config.tf_version).split('.')
     for excluded_version in excluded_versions:
-        exclude_tokens = excluded_version.split('.')
-        # assume len(exclude_tokens) <= len(current_tokens)
-        for i, exclude in enumerate(exclude_tokens):
-            if not current_tokens[i] == exclude:
-                break
-        condition = True
+        # tf version with same specificity as excluded_version
+        tf_version = '.'.join(str(config.tf_version).split('.')[:excluded_version.count('.') + 1])
+        if excluded_version == tf_version:
+            condition = True
 
     return unittest.skipIf(condition, reason)
 
diff --git a/tests/test_lstm.py b/tests/test_lstm.py
index fa8ecf857..7b26f8ecd 100644
--- a/tests/test_lstm.py
+++ b/tests/test_lstm.py
@@ -674,7 +674,8 @@ def func(x):
         feed_dict = {"input_1:0": x_val}
         input_names_with_port = ["input_1:0"]
         output_names_with_port = ["output_1:0", "cell_state_1:0", "output_2:0", "cell_state_2:0"]
-        self.run_test_case(func, feed_dict, input_names_with_port, output_names_with_port, rtol=1e-3, atol=1e-06)
+        self.run_test_case(func, feed_dict, input_names_with_port, output_names_with_port, rtol=1e-3, atol=1e-06,
+                           require_lstm_count=2)
 
     @check_opset_after_tf_version("1.15", 10, "might need ReverseV2")
     @skip_tf_versions("2.1", "Bug in TF 2.1")
@@ -721,7 +722,8 @@ def func(x, y1, y2):
         feed_dict = {"input_1:0": x_val, "input_2:0": seq_len_val, "input_3:0": seq_len_val}
         input_names_with_port = ["input_1:0", "input_2:0", "input_3:0"]
         output_names_with_port = ["output_1:0", "cell_state_1:0", "output_2:0", "cell_state_2:0"]
-        self.run_test_case(func, feed_dict, input_names_with_port, output_names_with_port, rtol=1e-3, atol=1e-06)
+        self.run_test_case(func, feed_dict, input_names_with_port, output_names_with_port, rtol=1e-3, atol=1e-06,
+                           require_lstm_count=2)
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':