diff --git a/psl-core/src/main/java/org/linqs/psl/application/learning/weight/gradient/GradientDescent.java b/psl-core/src/main/java/org/linqs/psl/application/learning/weight/gradient/GradientDescent.java
index 6978eea83..3c2d1199b 100644
--- a/psl-core/src/main/java/org/linqs/psl/application/learning/weight/gradient/GradientDescent.java
+++ b/psl-core/src/main/java/org/linqs/psl/application/learning/weight/gradient/GradientDescent.java
@@ -551,7 +551,7 @@ protected void runValidationEvaluation(int epoch) {
         evaluation.compute(validationMap);
         currentValidationEvaluationMetric = evaluation.getNormalizedRepMetric();
 
-        if (currentValidationEvaluationMetric > bestValidationEvaluationMetric) {
+        if (MathUtils.compare(currentValidationEvaluationMetric, bestValidationEvaluationMetric) >= 0) {
             lastValidationImprovementEpoch = epoch;
 
             bestValidationEvaluationMetric = currentValidationEvaluationMetric;