diff --git a/tests/Makefile.am b/tests/Makefile.am
index fc5966e46..adf25ae45 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile.am
+++ b/tests/Makefile.am
@@ -35,9 +35,13 @@ LOG_DRIVER = $(TEST_LOG_DRIVER)
 check_SCRIPTS = run
 
 # We try to keep this somehow by strength.  Test basic things first,
-# because such failures will be easier to diagnose and fix.
-TESTS = $(TESTS_sanity) $(TESTS_misc) $(TESTS_tl) $(TESTS_graph) \
-  $(TESTS_kripke) $(TESTS_twa) $(TESTS_python) $(TESTS_ltsmin)
+# because such failures will be easier to diagnose and fix.  The only
+# exception is that we keep TESTS_python at the beginning, because if
+# these tests are run at the same time as some heavy tests in
+# TESTS_twa they can easily fail due to some timeout in the Jupyter
+# communications.
+TESTS = $(TESTS_sanity) $(TESTS_python) $(TESTS_misc) $(TESTS_tl) \
+  $(TESTS_graph) $(TESTS_kripke) $(TESTS_twa) $(TESTS_ltsmin)
 
 distclean-local:
 	find . -name '*.dir' -type d -print | xargs rm -rf
diff --git a/tests/python/ipnbdoctest.py b/tests/python/ipnbdoctest.py
index 6e1f00800..9e9f6afc5 100755
--- a/tests/python/ipnbdoctest.py
+++ b/tests/python/ipnbdoctest.py
@@ -153,7 +153,8 @@ def run_cell(kc, cell):
     # print cell.input
     kc.execute(cell.input)
     # wait for finish, maximum 20s
-    kc.get_shell_msg(timeout=20)
+    reply = kc.get_shell_msg(timeout=20)
+    print("reply:\n", reply)
     outs = []
 
     while True: