diff --git a/UnitTests/test_psmatrixalgebra.py b/UnitTests/test_psmatrixalgebra.py
index a8529b5d..8726a1a2 100644
--- a/UnitTests/test_psmatrixalgebra.py
+++ b/UnitTests/test_psmatrixalgebra.py
@@ -121,7 +121,8 @@ def check_result(self):
     def check_floats(self, val1, val2):
         from helpers import THRESHOLD
         normval = abs(val1 - val2)
-        self.assertLessEqual(normval, THRESHOLD)
+        global_norm = comm.bcast(normval, root=0)
+        self.assertLessEqual(global_norm, THRESHOLD)
 
     def test_addition_pg(self):
         '''Test routines to add together matrices with an explicit grid.'''
@@ -302,6 +303,7 @@ def test_asymmetry(self):
             diff = matrix1 - matrix1.H
             ref = norm(diff.todense(), ord=inf)
             comp = ntmatrix1.MeasureAsymmetry()
+            comm.barrier()
 
             self.check_floats(ref, comp)
 
@@ -324,6 +326,8 @@ def test_symmetrize(self):
             ntmatrix1.WriteToMatrixMarket(self.result_file)
             comm.barrier()
 
+            self.check_result()
+
     def test_scalediag(self):
         '''Test routines to scale by a diagonal matrix.'''
         from copy import deepcopy