diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/GradientBoostedTrees.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/GradientBoostedTrees.scala
index b4466ff40937f..0149938fa719c 100644
--- a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/GradientBoostedTrees.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/GradientBoostedTrees.scala
@@ -226,17 +226,10 @@ object GradientBoostedTrees extends Logging {
       logDebug("error of gbt = " + loss.computeError(partialModel, input))
 
       if (validate) {
-        // Stop training early if
-        // 1. Reduction in error is less than the validationTol or
-        // 2. If the error increases, that is if the model is overfit.
+        // Record the best model if the reduction in error is more than the validationTol.
         // We want the model returned corresponding to the best validation error.
         val currentValidateError = loss.computeError(partialModel, validationInput)
-        if (bestValidateError - currentValidateError < validationTol) {
-          return new GradientBoostedTreesModel(
-            boostingStrategy.treeStrategy.algo,
-            baseLearners.slice(0, bestM),
-            baseLearnerWeights.slice(0, bestM))
-        } else if (currentValidateError < bestValidateError) {
+        if (currentValidateError < bestValidateError - validationTol) {
             bestValidateError = currentValidateError
             bestM = m + 1
         }
@@ -251,9 +244,15 @@ object GradientBoostedTrees extends Logging {
 
     logInfo("Internal timing for DecisionTree:")
     logInfo(s"$timer")
-
-    new GradientBoostedTreesModel(
-      boostingStrategy.treeStrategy.algo, baseLearners, baseLearnerWeights)
+    if (validate) {
+      new GradientBoostedTreesModel(
+        boostingStrategy.treeStrategy.algo,
+        baseLearners.slice(0, bestM),
+        baseLearnerWeights.slice(0, bestM))
+    } else {
+      new GradientBoostedTreesModel(
+        boostingStrategy.treeStrategy.algo, baseLearners, baseLearnerWeights)
+    }
   }
 
 }