diff --git a/easycv/apis/train.py b/easycv/apis/train.py
index 1c19c927..cceb635f 100644
--- a/easycv/apis/train.py
+++ b/easycv/apis/train.py
@@ -167,12 +167,15 @@ def train_model(model,
         runner.register_hook(DistSamplerSeedHook())
 
     # register eval hooks
-    validate = False
-    if 'eval_pipelines' in cfg:
-        if isinstance(cfg.eval_pipelines, dict):
-            cfg.eval_pipelines = [cfg.eval_pipelines]
-        if len(cfg.eval_pipelines) > 0:
-            validate = True
+    if validate:
+        if 'eval_pipelines' not in cfg:
+            runner.logger.warning(
+                'Not find `eval_pipelines` in cfg, skip validation!')
+            validate = False
+        else:
+            if isinstance(cfg.eval_pipelines, dict):
+                cfg.eval_pipelines = [cfg.eval_pipelines]
+            assert len(cfg.eval_pipelines) > 0
             runner.logger.info('open validate hook')
 
     best_metric_name = [
diff --git a/tools/train.py b/tools/train.py
index 55d0b438..8ba5ce59 100644
--- a/tools/train.py
+++ b/tools/train.py
@@ -57,6 +57,10 @@ def parse_args():
     parser.add_argument('--load_from', help='the checkpoint file to load from')
     parser.add_argument(
         '--pretrained', default=None, help='pretrained model file')
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '--no_validate',
+        action='store_true',
+        help='whether not to evaluate the checkpoint during training')
     parser.add_argument(
         '--gpus',
         type=int,
@@ -84,7 +88,6 @@ def parse_args():
         type=int,
         default=29500,
         help='port only works when launcher=="slurm"')
-
     parser.add_argument(
         '--model_type',
         type=str,
@@ -149,10 +152,12 @@ def main():
         torch.backends.cudnn.benchmark = True
 
     # update configs according to CLI args
-    # if args.work_dir is not None and cfg.get('work_dir', None) is None:
     if args.work_dir is not None:
         cfg.work_dir = args.work_dir
 
+    if cfg.get('work_dir', None) is None:
+        cfg.work_dir = './work_dir'
+
     # if `work_dir` is oss path, redirect `work_dir` to local path, add `oss_work_dir` point to oss path,
     # and use osssync hook to upload log and ckpt in work_dir to oss_work_dir
     if cfg.work_dir.startswith('oss://'):
@@ -306,6 +311,7 @@ def main():
         distributed=distributed,
         timestamp=timestamp,
         meta=meta,
+        validate=(not args.no_validate),
         use_fp16=args.fp16)