diff --git a/command/apply_test.go b/command/apply_test.go
index c5379c4f3..c831c8297 100644
--- a/command/apply_test.go
+++ b/command/apply_test.go
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import (
 	"reflect"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
+	"sync/atomic"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
@@ -58,80 +59,60 @@ func TestApply(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestApply_parallelism1(t *testing.T) {
-	statePath := testTempFile(t)
+func TestApply_parallelism(t *testing.T) {
+	provider := testProvider()
+
+	// This blocks all the appy functions. We close it when we exit so
+	// they end quickly after this test finishes.
+	block := make(chan struct{})
+	defer close(block)
+
+	var runCount uint64
+	provider.ApplyFn = func(
+		i *terraform.InstanceInfo,
+		s *terraform.InstanceState,
+		d *terraform.InstanceDiff) (*terraform.InstanceState, error) {
+		// Increment so we're counting parallelism
+		atomic.AddUint64(&runCount, 1)
+
+		// Block until we're done
+		<-block
+
+		return nil, nil
+	}
 
 	ui := new(cli.MockUi)
-	p := testProvider()
-	pr := new(terraform.MockResourceProvisioner)
-
-	pr.ApplyFn = func(*terraform.InstanceState, *terraform.ResourceConfig) error {
-		time.Sleep(time.Second)
-		return nil
-	}
-
-	args := []string{
-		"-state", statePath,
-		"-parallelism=1",
-		testFixturePath("parallelism"),
-	}
-
 	c := &ApplyCommand{
 		Meta: Meta{
-			ContextOpts: testCtxConfigWithShell(p, pr),
+			ContextOpts: testCtxConfig(provider),
 			Ui:          ui,
 		},
 	}
 
-	start := time.Now()
-	if code := c.Run(args); code != 0 {
-		t.Fatalf("bad: %d\n\n%s", code, ui.ErrorWriter.String())
-	}
-	elapsed := time.Since(start).Seconds()
-
-	// This test should take exactly two seconds, plus some minor amount of execution time.
-	if elapsed < 2 || elapsed > 2.2 {
-		t.Fatalf("bad: %f\n\n%s", elapsed, ui.ErrorWriter.String())
-	}
-
-}
-
-func TestApply_parallelism2(t *testing.T) {
-	statePath := testTempFile(t)
-
-	ui := new(cli.MockUi)
-	p := testProvider()
-	pr := new(terraform.MockResourceProvisioner)
-
-	pr.ApplyFn = func(*terraform.InstanceState, *terraform.ResourceConfig) error {
-		time.Sleep(time.Second)
-		return nil
-	}
-
+	par := uint64(5)
 	args := []string{
-		"-state", statePath,
-		"-parallelism=2",
+		fmt.Sprintf("-parallelism=%d", par),
 		testFixturePath("parallelism"),
 	}
 
-	c := &ApplyCommand{
-		Meta: Meta{
-			ContextOpts: testCtxConfigWithShell(p, pr),
-			Ui:          ui,
-		},
+	// Run in a goroutine. We still try to catch any errors and
+	// get them on the error channel.
+	errCh := make(chan string, 1)
+	go func() {
+		if code := c.Run(args); code != 0 {
+			errCh <- ui.OutputWriter.String()
+		}
+	}()
+	select {
+	case <-time.After(1000 * time.Millisecond):
+	case err := <-errCh:
+		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
 	}
 
-	start := time.Now()
-	if code := c.Run(args); code != 0 {
-		t.Fatalf("bad: %d\n\n%s", code, ui.ErrorWriter.String())
+	// The total in flight should equal the parallelism
+	if rc := atomic.LoadUint64(&runCount); rc != par {
+		t.Fatalf("Expected parallelism: %d, got: %d", par, rc)
 	}
-	elapsed := time.Since(start).Seconds()
-
-	// This test should take exactly one second, plus some minor amount of execution time.
-	if elapsed < 1 || elapsed > 1.2 {
-		t.Fatalf("bad: %f\n\n%s", elapsed, ui.ErrorWriter.String())
-	}
-
 }
 
 func TestApply_configInvalid(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/command/test-fixtures/parallelism/main.tf b/command/test-fixtures/parallelism/main.tf
index 7708209c1..dabb85a93 100644
--- a/command/test-fixtures/parallelism/main.tf
+++ b/command/test-fixtures/parallelism/main.tf
@@ -1,13 +1,10 @@
-resource "test_instance" "foo1" {
-	ami = "bar"
-
-	// shell has been configured to sleep for one second
-	provisioner "shell" {}
-}
-
-resource "test_instance" "foo2" {
-	ami = "bar"
-
-	// shell has been configured to sleep for one second
-	provisioner "shell" {}
-}
+resource "test_instance" "foo1" {}
+resource "test_instance" "foo2" {}
+resource "test_instance" "foo3" {}
+resource "test_instance" "foo4" {}
+resource "test_instance" "foo5" {}
+resource "test_instance" "foo6" {}
+resource "test_instance" "foo7" {}
+resource "test_instance" "foo8" {}
+resource "test_instance" "foo9" {}
+resource "test_instance" "foo10" {}
diff --git a/terraform/graph_walk_context.go b/terraform/graph_walk_context.go
index 314d18972..50f119be6 100644
--- a/terraform/graph_walk_context.go
+++ b/terraform/graph_walk_context.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package terraform
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"log"
 	"sync"
 
 	"github.com/hashicorp/errwrap"
@@ -95,6 +96,8 @@ func (w *ContextGraphWalker) EnterPath(path []string) EvalContext {
 }
 
 func (w *ContextGraphWalker) EnterEvalTree(v dag.Vertex, n EvalNode) EvalNode {
+	log.Printf("[INFO] Entering eval tree: %s", dag.VertexName(v))
+
 	// Acquire a lock on the semaphore
 	w.Context.parallelSem.Acquire()
 
@@ -105,6 +108,8 @@ func (w *ContextGraphWalker) EnterEvalTree(v dag.Vertex, n EvalNode) EvalNode {
 
 func (w *ContextGraphWalker) ExitEvalTree(
 	v dag.Vertex, output interface{}, err error) error {
+	log.Printf("[INFO] Exiting eval tree: %s", dag.VertexName(v))
+
 	// Release the semaphore
 	w.Context.parallelSem.Release()
 
diff --git a/terraform/resource_provider_mock.go b/terraform/resource_provider_mock.go
index 3b2b351dc..75fb6d87e 100644
--- a/terraform/resource_provider_mock.go
+++ b/terraform/resource_provider_mock.go
@@ -118,13 +118,14 @@ func (p *MockResourceProvider) Apply(
 	info *InstanceInfo,
 	state *InstanceState,
 	diff *InstanceDiff) (*InstanceState, error) {
+	// We only lock while writing data. Reading is fine
 	p.Lock()
-	defer p.Unlock()
-
 	p.ApplyCalled = true
 	p.ApplyInfo = info
 	p.ApplyState = state
 	p.ApplyDiff = diff
+	p.Unlock()
+
 	if p.ApplyFn != nil {
 		return p.ApplyFn(info, state, diff)
 	}