diff --git a/examples/run_classifier.py b/examples/run_classifier.py
index 123efb91..e708671e 100644
--- a/examples/run_classifier.py
+++ b/examples/run_classifier.py
@@ -50,12 +50,6 @@ else:
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
-def barrier():
-    t = torch.randn((), device='cuda')
-    torch.distributed.all_reduce(t)
-    torch.cuda.synchronize()
-
-
 def main():
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
 
@@ -208,11 +202,11 @@ def main():
     num_labels = len(label_list)
 
     if args.local_rank not in [-1, 0]:
-        barrier()  # Make sure only the first process in distributed training will download model & vocab
+        torch.distributed.barrier()  # Make sure only the first process in distributed training will download model & vocab
     tokenizer = BertTokenizer.from_pretrained(args.bert_model, do_lower_case=args.do_lower_case)
     model = BertForSequenceClassification.from_pretrained(args.bert_model, num_labels=num_labels)
     if args.local_rank == 0:
-        barrier()
+        torch.distributed.barrier()
 
     if args.fp16:
         model.half()
diff --git a/examples/run_squad.py b/examples/run_squad.py
index f20dd9d3..0d0f52e7 100644
--- a/examples/run_squad.py
+++ b/examples/run_squad.py
@@ -183,10 +183,12 @@ def main():
     if not os.path.exists(args.output_dir):
         os.makedirs(args.output_dir)
 
+    if args.local_rank not in [-1, 0]:
+        torch.distributed.barrier()  # Make sure only the first process in distributed training will download model & vocab
     tokenizer = BertTokenizer.from_pretrained(args.bert_model, do_lower_case=args.do_lower_case)
-
-    # Prepare model
     model = BertForQuestionAnswering.from_pretrained(args.bert_model)
+    if args.local_rank == 0:
+        torch.distributed.barrier()
 
     if args.fp16:
         model.half()