diff --git a/IPython/zmq/parallel/asyncresult.py b/IPython/zmq/parallel/asyncresult.py
index 999e8fc..e96b75b 100644
--- a/IPython/zmq/parallel/asyncresult.py
+++ b/IPython/zmq/parallel/asyncresult.py
@@ -10,12 +10,21 @@
 # Imports
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+from IPython.external.decorator import decorator
 import error
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Classes
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+@decorator
+def check_ready(f, self, *args, **kwargs):
+    """Call spin() to sync state prior to calling the method."""
+    self.wait(0)
+    if not self._ready:
+        raise error.TimeoutError("result not ready")
+    return f(self, *args, **kwargs)
+
 class AsyncResult(object):
     """Class for representing results of non-blocking calls.
     
@@ -79,6 +88,7 @@ class AsyncResult(object):
         if self._ready:
             try:
                 results = map(self._client.results.get, self.msg_ids)
+                self._result = results
                 results = error.collect_exceptions(results, self._fname)
                 self._result = self._reconstruct_result(results)
             except Exception, e:
@@ -86,6 +96,8 @@ class AsyncResult(object):
                 self._success = False
             else:
                 self._success = True
+            finally:
+                self._metadata = map(self._client.metadata.get, self.msg_ids)
             
     
     def successful(self):
@@ -95,7 +107,67 @@ class AsyncResult(object):
         """
         assert self._ready
         return self._success
+    
+    #----------------------------------------------------------------
+    # Extra methods not in mp.pool.AsyncResult
+    #----------------------------------------------------------------
+    
+    def get_dict(self, timeout=-1):
+        """Get the results as a dict, keyed by engine_id."""
+        results = self.get(timeout)
+        engine_ids = [md['engine_id'] for md in self._metadata ]
+        bycount = sorted(engine_ids, key=lambda k: engine_ids.count(k))
+        maxcount = bycount.count(bycount[-1])
+        if maxcount > 1:
+            raise ValueError("Cannot build dict, %i jobs ran on engine #%i"%(
+                    maxcount, bycount[-1]))
+        
+        return dict(zip(engine_ids,results))
+    
+    @property
+    @check_ready
+    def result(self):
+        """result property."""
+        return self._result
+    
+    @property
+    @check_ready
+    def metadata(self):
+        """metadata property."""
+        return self._metadata
+    
+    @property
+    @check_ready
+    def result_dict(self):
+        """result property as a dict."""
+        return self.get_dict(0)
+    
+    #-------------------------------------
+    # dict-access
+    #-------------------------------------
+    
+    @check_ready
+    def __getitem__(self, key):
+        """getitem returns result value(s) if keyed by int/slice, or metadata if key is str.
+        """
+        if isinstance(key, int):
+            return error.collect_exceptions([self._result[key]], self._fname)[0]
+        elif isinstance(key, slice):
+            return error.collect_exceptions(self._result[key], self._fname)
+        elif isinstance(key, basestring):
+            return [ md[key] for md in self._metadata ]
+        else:
+            raise TypeError("Invalid key type %r, must be 'int','slice', or 'str'"%type(key))
+    
+    @check_ready
+    def __getattr__(self, key):
+        """getattr maps to getitem for convenient access to metadata."""
+        if key not in self._metadata[0].keys():
+            raise AttributeError("%r object has no attribute %r"%(
+                    self.__class__.__name__, key))
+        return self.__getitem__(key)
 
+    
 class AsyncMapResult(AsyncResult):
     """Class for representing results of non-blocking gathers.
     
@@ -111,3 +183,4 @@ class AsyncMapResult(AsyncResult):
         return self._mapObject.joinPartitions(res)
     
         
+__all__ = ['AsyncResult', 'AsyncMapResult']
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/IPython/zmq/parallel/error.py b/IPython/zmq/parallel/error.py
index 1177978..add5aac 100644
--- a/IPython/zmq/parallel/error.py
+++ b/IPython/zmq/parallel/error.py
@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ class CompositeError(KernelError):
                 et,ev,tb = sys.exc_info()
 
 
-def collect_exceptions(rdict_or_list, method):
+def collect_exceptions(rdict_or_list, method='unspecified'):
     """check a result dict for errors, and raise CompositeError if any exist.
     Passthrough otherwise."""
     elist = []