diff --git a/wolframalpha/__init__.py b/wolframalpha/__init__.py
index fd7feb7..e991559 100644
--- a/wolframalpha/__init__.py
+++ b/wolframalpha/__init__.py
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ compat.fix_HTTPMessage()
 class Result(object):
     def __init__(self, stream):
         self.tree = etree.parse(stream)
-        if self.tree.getroot().find('error') is not None:
+        error = self.tree.find('error')
+        if error:
             raise Exception('you may have entered the wrong appid')
 
     def __iter__(self):