diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 4b980a628acc..f0a67c51c383 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ jobs:
             export PATH=/usr/lib/ccache:$PATH
             # XXX: use "numpy>=1.15.0" when it's released
             pypy3 -mpip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
-            pypy3 -mpip install --no-build-isolation --extra-index https://antocuni.github.io/pypy-wheels/ubuntu "pytest>=3.6" pytest-xdist Tempita "Cython>=0.28.2" mpmath
+            pypy3 -mpip install --no-build-isolation --extra-index https://antocuni.github.io/pypy-wheels/ubuntu pytest pytest-xdist Tempita "Cython>=0.28.2" mpmath
             pypy3 -mpip install --no-build-isolation git+https://github.com/numpy/numpy.git@db552b5b6b37f2ff085b304751d7a2ebed26adc9
       - run:
           name: build
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index a84c8cf57740..8160e1067f27 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ before_install:
   - travis_retry pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
   - travis_retry pip install cython==0.25.2
   - if [ -n "$NUMPYSPEC" ]; then travis_retry pip install $NUMPYSPEC; fi
-  - travis_retry pip install --upgrade "pytest>=3.6.0" pytest-xdist pytest-faulthandler mpmath argparse Pillow codecov
+  - travis_retry pip install --upgrade pytest pytest-xdist pytest-faulthandler mpmath argparse Pillow codecov
   - travis_retry pip install gmpy2  # speeds up mpmath (scipy.special tests)
   - |
     if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "linux" ]]; then
diff --git a/scipy/conftest.py b/scipy/conftest.py
index 85e3fd89e9b2..e5fac2343043 100644
--- a/scipy/conftest.py
+++ b/scipy/conftest.py
@@ -5,12 +5,16 @@
 import pytest
 import warnings
 
+from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 from scipy._lib._fpumode import get_fpu_mode
 from scipy._lib._testutils import FPUModeChangeWarning
 
 
 def pytest_runtest_setup(item):
-    mark = item.get_closest_marker("xslow")
+    if LooseVersion(pytest.__version__) >= LooseVersion("3.6.0"):
+        mark = item.get_closest_marker("xslow")
+    else:
+        mark = item.get_marker("xslow")
     if mark is not None:
         try:
             v = int(os.environ.get('SCIPY_XSLOW', '0'))
diff --git a/scipy/sparse/tests/test_base.py b/scipy/sparse/tests/test_base.py
index b25fbc889b40..d2e1f08a9ad4 100644
--- a/scipy/sparse/tests/test_base.py
+++ b/scipy/sparse/tests/test_base.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ class for generic tests" section.
 import operator
 import contextlib
 import functools
+from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 
 import numpy as np
 from scipy._lib.six import xrange, zip as izip
@@ -4499,10 +4500,16 @@ def cases_64bit():
                 if bool(msg):
                     marks += [pytest.mark.skip(reason=msg)]
 
-                markers = getattr(method, 'pytestmark', [])
-                for mark in markers:
-                    if mark.name in ('skipif', 'skip', 'xfail', 'xslow'):
-                        marks.append(mark)
+                if LooseVersion(pytest.__version__) >= LooseVersion("3.6.0"):
+                    markers = getattr(method, 'pytestmark', [])
+                    for mark in markers:
+                        if mark.name in ('skipif', 'skip', 'xfail', 'xslow'):
+                            marks.append(mark)
+                else:
+                    for mname in ['skipif', 'skip', 'xfail', 'xslow']:
+                        if hasattr(method, mname):
+                            marks += [getattr(method, mname)]
+
                 yield pytest.param(cls, method_name, marks=marks)
 
 
diff --git a/tools/ci/appveyor/requirements.txt b/tools/ci/appveyor/requirements.txt
index 886ca47453bd..cdb314ee3eca 100644
--- a/tools/ci/appveyor/requirements.txt
+++ b/tools/ci/appveyor/requirements.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 numpy
 cython
-pytest>=3.6.0
+pytest
 pytest-timeout
 pytest-xdist
 pytest-env