diff --git a/tests/base/datasets.py b/tests/base/datasets.py
index b1991de6aa9e6..e55ef3484f7ea 100644
--- a/tests/base/datasets.py
+++ b/tests/base/datasets.py
@@ -63,13 +63,7 @@ def __init__(self, root: str = PATH_DATASETS, train: bool = True,
 
         data_file = self.TRAIN_FILE_NAME if self.train else self.TEST_FILE_NAME
         # FIXME: try to fix loading
-        for _ in range(30):
-            try:
-                self.data, self.targets = torch.load(os.path.join(self.cached_folder_path, data_file))
-            except Exception:
-                time.sleep(1)
-            else:
-                break
+        self.data, self.targets = _try_load(os.path.join(self.cached_folder_path, data_file))
 
     def __getitem__(self, idx: int) -> Tuple[Tensor, int]:
         img = self.data[idx].float().unsqueeze(0)
@@ -111,6 +105,19 @@ def _download(self, data_folder: str) -> None:
             urllib.request.urlretrieve(url, fpath)
 
 
+def _try_load(path_data, trials=30):
+    res = None
+    assert os.path.isfile(path_data)
+    for _ in range(trials):
+        try:
+            res = torch.load(path_data)
+        except Exception:
+            time.sleep(1)
+        else:
+            break
+    return res
+
+
 def normalize_tensor(tensor: Tensor, mean: float = 0.0, std: float = 1.0) -> Tensor:
     tensor = tensor.clone()
     mean = torch.as_tensor(mean, dtype=tensor.dtype, device=tensor.device)
@@ -195,7 +202,7 @@ def prepare_data(self, download: bool) -> None:
         for fname in (self.TRAIN_FILE_NAME, self.TEST_FILE_NAME):
             path_fname = os.path.join(super().cached_folder_path, fname)
             assert os.path.isfile(path_fname), 'Missing cached file: %s' % path_fname
-            data, targets = torch.load(path_fname)
+            data, targets = _try_load(path_fname)
             data, targets = self._prepare_subset(data, targets, self.num_samples, self.digits)
             torch.save((data, targets), os.path.join(self.cached_folder_path, fname))