diff --git a/bigquery/tests/unit/test_table.py b/bigquery/tests/unit/test_table.py
index dacaa8074f6a..8ba7fee892e5 100644
--- a/bigquery/tests/unit/test_table.py
+++ b/bigquery/tests/unit/test_table.py
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 import itertools
-import json
 import logging
 import time
 import unittest
@@ -2271,26 +2270,26 @@ def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_logs_session(self):
     @unittest.skipIf(
         bigquery_storage_v1beta1 is None, "Requires `google-cloud-bigquery-storage`"
     )
+    @unittest.skipIf(pyarrow is None, "Requires `pyarrow`")
     def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_empty_streams(self):
         from google.cloud.bigquery import schema
         from google.cloud.bigquery import table as mut
         from google.cloud.bigquery_storage_v1beta1 import reader
 
+        arrow_fields = [
+            pyarrow.field("colA", pyarrow.int64()),
+            # Not alphabetical to test column order.
+            pyarrow.field("colC", pyarrow.float64()),
+            pyarrow.field("colB", pyarrow.utf8()),
+        ]
+        arrow_schema = pyarrow.schema(arrow_fields)
+
         bqstorage_client = mock.create_autospec(
             bigquery_storage_v1beta1.BigQueryStorageClient
         )
         session = bigquery_storage_v1beta1.types.ReadSession(
-            streams=[{"name": "/projects/proj/dataset/dset/tables/tbl/streams/1234"}]
-        )
-        session.avro_schema.schema = json.dumps(
-            {
-                "fields": [
-                    {"name": "colA"},
-                    # Not alphabetical to test column order.
-                    {"name": "colC"},
-                    {"name": "colB"},
-                ]
-            }
+            streams=[{"name": "/projects/proj/dataset/dset/tables/tbl/streams/1234"}],
+            arrow_schema={"serialized_schema": arrow_schema.serialize().to_pybytes()},
         )
         bqstorage_client.create_read_session.return_value = session
 
@@ -2327,11 +2326,20 @@ def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_empty_streams(self):
     @unittest.skipIf(
         bigquery_storage_v1beta1 is None, "Requires `google-cloud-bigquery-storage`"
     )
+    @unittest.skipIf(pyarrow is None, "Requires `pyarrow`")
     def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_nonempty(self):
         from google.cloud.bigquery import schema
         from google.cloud.bigquery import table as mut
         from google.cloud.bigquery_storage_v1beta1 import reader
 
+        arrow_fields = [
+            pyarrow.field("colA", pyarrow.int64()),
+            # Not alphabetical to test column order.
+            pyarrow.field("colC", pyarrow.float64()),
+            pyarrow.field("colB", pyarrow.utf8()),
+        ]
+        arrow_schema = pyarrow.schema(arrow_fields)
+
         bqstorage_client = mock.create_autospec(
             bigquery_storage_v1beta1.BigQueryStorageClient
         )
@@ -2340,16 +2348,9 @@ def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_nonempty(self):
             {"name": "/projects/proj/dataset/dset/tables/tbl/streams/1234"},
             {"name": "/projects/proj/dataset/dset/tables/tbl/streams/5678"},
         ]
-        session = bigquery_storage_v1beta1.types.ReadSession(streams=streams)
-        session.avro_schema.schema = json.dumps(
-            {
-                "fields": [
-                    {"name": "colA"},
-                    # Not alphabetical to test column order.
-                    {"name": "colC"},
-                    {"name": "colB"},
-                ]
-            }
+        session = bigquery_storage_v1beta1.types.ReadSession(
+            streams=streams,
+            arrow_schema={"serialized_schema": arrow_schema.serialize().to_pybytes()},
         )
         bqstorage_client.create_read_session.return_value = session
 
@@ -2400,17 +2401,23 @@ def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_nonempty(self):
     @unittest.skipIf(
         bigquery_storage_v1beta1 is None, "Requires `google-cloud-bigquery-storage`"
     )
+    @unittest.skipIf(pyarrow is None, "Requires `pyarrow`")
     def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_multiple_streams_return_unique_index(self):
         from google.cloud.bigquery import schema
         from google.cloud.bigquery import table as mut
         from google.cloud.bigquery_storage_v1beta1 import reader
 
+        arrow_fields = [pyarrow.field("colA", pyarrow.int64())]
+        arrow_schema = pyarrow.schema(arrow_fields)
+
         streams = [
             {"name": "/projects/proj/dataset/dset/tables/tbl/streams/1234"},
             {"name": "/projects/proj/dataset/dset/tables/tbl/streams/5678"},
         ]
-        session = bigquery_storage_v1beta1.types.ReadSession(streams=streams)
-        session.avro_schema.schema = json.dumps({"fields": [{"name": "colA"}]})
+        session = bigquery_storage_v1beta1.types.ReadSession(
+            streams=streams,
+            arrow_schema={"serialized_schema": arrow_schema.serialize().to_pybytes()},
+        )
 
         bqstorage_client = mock.create_autospec(
             bigquery_storage_v1beta1.BigQueryStorageClient
@@ -2448,6 +2455,7 @@ def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_multiple_streams_return_unique_index(self):
         bigquery_storage_v1beta1 is None, "Requires `google-cloud-bigquery-storage`"
     )
     @unittest.skipIf(tqdm is None, "Requires `tqdm`")
+    @unittest.skipIf(pyarrow is None, "Requires `pyarrow`")
     @mock.patch("tqdm.tqdm")
     def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_updates_progress_bar(self, tqdm_mock):
         from google.cloud.bigquery import schema
@@ -2457,6 +2465,9 @@ def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_updates_progress_bar(self, tqdm_mock):
         # Speed up testing.
         mut._PROGRESS_INTERVAL = 0.01
 
+        arrow_fields = [pyarrow.field("testcol", pyarrow.int64())]
+        arrow_schema = pyarrow.schema(arrow_fields)
+
         bqstorage_client = mock.create_autospec(
             bigquery_storage_v1beta1.BigQueryStorageClient
         )
@@ -2466,8 +2477,10 @@ def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_updates_progress_bar(self, tqdm_mock):
             {"name": "/projects/proj/dataset/dset/tables/tbl/streams/1234"},
             {"name": "/projects/proj/dataset/dset/tables/tbl/streams/5678"},
         ]
-        session = bigquery_storage_v1beta1.types.ReadSession(streams=streams)
-        session.avro_schema.schema = json.dumps({"fields": [{"name": "testcol"}]})
+        session = bigquery_storage_v1beta1.types.ReadSession(
+            streams=streams,
+            arrow_schema={"serialized_schema": arrow_schema.serialize().to_pybytes()},
+        )
         bqstorage_client.create_read_session.return_value = session
 
         mock_rowstream = mock.create_autospec(reader.ReadRowsStream)
@@ -2521,6 +2534,7 @@ def blocking_to_dataframe(*args, **kwargs):
     @unittest.skipIf(
         bigquery_storage_v1beta1 is None, "Requires `google-cloud-bigquery-storage`"
     )
+    @unittest.skipIf(pyarrow is None, "Requires `pyarrow`")
     def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_exits_on_keyboardinterrupt(self):
         from google.cloud.bigquery import schema
         from google.cloud.bigquery import table as mut
@@ -2529,6 +2543,14 @@ def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_exits_on_keyboardinterrupt(self):
         # Speed up testing.
         mut._PROGRESS_INTERVAL = 0.01
 
+        arrow_fields = [
+            pyarrow.field("colA", pyarrow.int64()),
+            # Not alphabetical to test column order.
+            pyarrow.field("colC", pyarrow.float64()),
+            pyarrow.field("colB", pyarrow.utf8()),
+        ]
+        arrow_schema = pyarrow.schema(arrow_fields)
+
         bqstorage_client = mock.create_autospec(
             bigquery_storage_v1beta1.BigQueryStorageClient
         )
@@ -2539,10 +2561,8 @@ def test_to_dataframe_w_bqstorage_exits_on_keyboardinterrupt(self):
                 # ends early.
                 {"name": "/projects/proj/dataset/dset/tables/tbl/streams/1234"},
                 {"name": "/projects/proj/dataset/dset/tables/tbl/streams/5678"},
-            ]
-        )
-        session.avro_schema.schema = json.dumps(
-            {"fields": [{"name": "colA"}, {"name": "colB"}, {"name": "colC"}]}
+            ],
+            arrow_schema={"serialized_schema": arrow_schema.serialize().to_pybytes()},
         )
         bqstorage_client.create_read_session.return_value = session