diff --git a/test/unit/connection/outbound-sending-tests.js b/test/unit/connection/outbound-sending-tests.js
index 2679dfd..2d5c0a0 100644
--- a/test/unit/connection/outbound-sending-tests.js
+++ b/test/unit/connection/outbound-sending-tests.js
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@ test("sends startup message", function() {
                   .addCString('brian')
                   .addCString('database')
                   .addCString('bang')
-                  .addCString('options')
-                  .addCString("--client_encoding='utf-8'")
+                  .addCString('client_encoding')
+                  .addCString("'utf-8'")
                   .addCString('').join(true))
 });