diff --git a/test/mnist.py b/test/mnist.py
index ffcead0a24..686b6fcfc9 100644
--- a/test/mnist.py
+++ b/test/mnist.py
@@ -1,32 +1,17 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 import numpy as np
 from tinygrad.tensor import Tensor
+from tinygrad.nn import layer_init, SGD
+from tinygrad.utils import fetch_mnist
+
 from tqdm import trange
 
 # load the mnist dataset
 
-def fetch(url):
-  import requests, gzip, os, hashlib, numpy
-  fp = os.path.join("/tmp", hashlib.md5(url.encode('utf-8')).hexdigest())
-  if not os.path.isfile(fp):
-    with open(fp, "rb") as f:
-      dat = f.read()
-  else:
-    with open(fp, "wb") as f:
-      dat = requests.get(url).content
-      f.write(dat)
-  return numpy.frombuffer(gzip.decompress(dat), dtype=np.uint8).copy()
-X_train = fetch("http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/train-images-idx3-ubyte.gz")[0x10:].reshape((-1, 28, 28))
-Y_train = fetch("http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/train-labels-idx1-ubyte.gz")[8:]
-X_test = fetch("http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/t10k-images-idx3-ubyte.gz")[0x10:].reshape((-1, 28, 28))
-Y_test = fetch("http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/t10k-labels-idx1-ubyte.gz")[8:]
+X_train, Y_train, X_test, Y_test = fetch_mnist()
 
 # train a model
 
-def layer_init(m, h):
-  ret = np.random.uniform(-1., 1., size=(m,h))/np.sqrt(m*h)
-  return ret.astype(np.float32)
-
 class TinyBobNet:
   def __init__(self):
     self.l1 = Tensor(layer_init(784, 128))
@@ -37,14 +22,6 @@ class TinyBobNet:
 
 # optimizer
 
-class SGD:
-  def __init__(self, tensors, lr):
-    self.tensors = tensors
-    self.lr = lr
-
-  def step(self):
-    for t in self.tensors:
-      t.data -= self.lr * t.grad
 
 model = TinyBobNet()
 optim = SGD([model.l1, model.l2], lr=0.01)
diff --git a/tinygrad/nn.py b/tinygrad/nn.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e3f6e95f62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tinygrad/nn.py
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+import numpy as np
+
+def layer_init(m, h):
+  ret = np.random.uniform(-1., 1., size=(m,h))/np.sqrt(m*h)
+  return ret.astype(np.float32)
+
+class SGD:
+  def __init__(self, tensors, lr):
+    self.tensors = tensors
+    self.lr = lr
+
+  def step(self):
+    for t in self.tensors:
+      t.data -= self.lr * t.grad
+
diff --git a/tinygrad/utils.py b/tinygrad/utils.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bbef87f6ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tinygrad/utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+def fetch_mnist():
+  def fetch(url):
+    import requests, gzip, os, hashlib, numpy
+    fp = os.path.join("/tmp", hashlib.md5(url.encode('utf-8')).hexdigest())
+    if not os.path.isfile(fp):
+      with open(fp, "rb") as f:
+        dat = f.read()
+    else:
+      with open(fp, "wb") as f:
+        dat = requests.get(url).content
+        f.write(dat)
+    return numpy.frombuffer(gzip.decompress(dat), dtype=numpy.uint8).copy()
+  X_train = fetch("http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/train-images-idx3-ubyte.gz")[0x10:].reshape((-1, 28, 28))
+  Y_train = fetch("http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/train-labels-idx1-ubyte.gz")[8:]
+  X_test = fetch("http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/t10k-images-idx3-ubyte.gz")[0x10:].reshape((-1, 28, 28))
+  Y_test = fetch("http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/t10k-labels-idx1-ubyte.gz")[8:]
+  return X_train, Y_train, X_test, Y_test