diff --git a/test/ml/test_ml.py b/test/ml/test_ml.py
index 9a517314..e30ce553 100644
--- a/test/ml/test_ml.py
+++ b/test/ml/test_ml.py
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ def test_pca(self):
 
     def test_pca_robustness(self):
         dataframe = ml.summarize_networks([INPUT_DIR + 'test-data-s1/s1.txt', INPUT_DIR + 'test-data-s2/s2.txt', INPUT_DIR + 'test-data-s3/s3.txt'])
-
+        expected = pd.read_table(EXPECT_DIR + 'expected-pca-coordinates.tsv')
+        expected = expected.round(5)
         for _ in range(5):
             dataframe_shuffled = dataframe.sample(frac=1, axis=1)  # permute the columns
             ml.pca(dataframe_shuffled, OUT_DIR + 'pca-shuffled-columns.png', OUT_DIR + 'pca-shuffled-columns-variance.txt',
@@ -72,8 +73,6 @@ def test_pca_robustness(self):
             coord = pd.read_table(OUT_DIR + 'pca-shuffled-columns-coordinates.tsv')
             coord = coord.round(5)  # round values to 5 digits to account for numeric differences across machines
             coord.sort_values(by='algorithm', ignore_index=True, inplace=True)
-            expected = pd.read_table(EXPECT_DIR + 'expected-pca-coordinates.tsv')
-            expected = expected.round(5)
 
             assert coord.equals(expected)
 
@@ -84,8 +83,6 @@ def test_pca_robustness(self):
             coord = pd.read_table(OUT_DIR + 'pca-shuffled-rows-coordinates.tsv')
             coord = coord.round(5)  # round values to 5 digits to account for numeric differences across machines
             coord.sort_values(by='algorithm', ignore_index=True, inplace=True)
-            expected = pd.read_table(EXPECT_DIR + 'expected-pca-coordinates.tsv')
-            expected = expected.round(5)
 
             assert coord.equals(expected)