diff --git a/word-count/example.py b/word-count/example.py
index 14dfa9c8846..cc0b10942e5 100644
--- a/word-count/example.py
+++ b/word-count/example.py
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
-from collections import Counter
-
+import re
 
 def word_count(text):
     """Return a Counter object that maps from the words contained in
     the phrase to their respective counts
     """
-    return Counter(text.split())
-    
+    count = {}
+    for w in re.split('\W',re.sub('[^A-Za-z0-9]',' ', text)):
+        if w:
+            count[w] = count.get(w, 0) + 1
+    return count
diff --git a/word-count/word_count_test.py b/word-count/word_count_test.py
index 009dc7757fb..163cf9ce77c 100644
--- a/word-count/word_count_test.py
+++ b/word-count/word_count_test.py
@@ -22,9 +22,9 @@ def test_count_multiple_occurences(self):
             word_count('one fish two fish red fish blue fish')
         )
 
-    def test_preserves_punctuation(self):
+    def test_ignores_punctuation(self):
         self.assertEqual(
-            {'car': 1, 'carpet': 1, 'as': 1, 'java': 1, ':': 2, 'javascript!!&@$%^&': 1},
+            {'car': 1, 'carpet': 1, 'as': 1, 'java': 1, 'javascript': 1},
             word_count('car : carpet as java : javascript!!&@$%^&')
         )
 
@@ -39,16 +39,16 @@ def test_mixed_case(self):
             {'go': 1, 'Go': 1, 'GO': 1},
             word_count('go Go GO')
         )
-        
+
     def test_multiple_spaces(self):
       self.assertEqual(
           {'wait': 1, 'for': 1, 'it': 1},
           word_count('wait for       it')
       )
-        
+
     def test_newlines(self):
         self.assertEqual(
-            {'rah': 2, 'ah': 3, 'roma': 2, 'ma': 1, 'ga': 2, 'oh': 1, 'la': 2, 
+            {'rah': 2, 'ah': 3, 'roma': 2, 'ma': 1, 'ga': 2, 'oh': 1, 'la': 2,
             'want': 1, 'your': 1, 'bad': 1, 'romance': 1},
             word_count('rah rah ah ah ah\nroma roma ma\nga ga oh la la\nwant your bad romance')
         )