diff --git a/docs/internals/contributing/writing-code/unit-tests.txt b/docs/internals/contributing/writing-code/unit-tests.txt
index 585b3911d3..99969e36d6 100644
--- a/docs/internals/contributing/writing-code/unit-tests.txt
+++ b/docs/internals/contributing/writing-code/unit-tests.txt
@@ -32,18 +32,20 @@ sample settings module that uses the SQLite database. To run the tests:
 
     git clone git@github.com:django/django.git django-repo
     cd django-repo/tests
-    ./runtests.py
+    PYTHONPATH=..:$PYTHONPATH ./runtests.py
 
 .. versionchanged:: 1.7
 
-Older versions of Django required running the tests like this::
+Older versions of Django required specifying a settings file::
 
     PYTHONPATH=..:$PYTHONPATH python ./runtests.py --settings=test_sqlite
 
-``runtests.py`` now uses the Django package found at ``tests/../django`` (there
-isn't a need to add this on your ``PYTHONPATH``) and ``test_sqlite`` for the
-settings if settings aren't provided through either ``--settings`` or
-:envvar:`DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE`.
+``runtests.py`` now uses ``test_sqlite`` by default if settings aren't provided
+through either ``--settings`` or :envvar:`DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE`.
+
+You can avoid typing the ``PYTHONPATH`` bit each time by adding your Django
+checkout to your ``PYTHONPATH`` or by installing the source checkout using pip.
+See :ref:`installing-development-version`.
 
 .. _running-unit-tests-settings:
 
diff --git a/tests/runtests.py b/tests/runtests.py
index a1c2601aa8..08eaf6ed0e 100755
--- a/tests/runtests.py
+++ b/tests/runtests.py
@@ -9,21 +9,6 @@ import sys
 import tempfile
 import warnings
 
-
-def upath(path):
-    """
-    Separate version of django.utils._os.upath. The django.utils version isn't
-    usable here, as upath is needed for RUNTESTS_DIR which is needed before
-    django can be imported.
-    """
-    if sys.version_info[0] != 3 and not isinstance(path, bytes):
-        fs_encoding = sys.getfilesystemencoding() or sys.getdefaultencoding()
-        return path.decode(fs_encoding)
-    return path
-
-RUNTESTS_DIR = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(upath(__file__)))
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.dirname(RUNTESTS_DIR))  # 'tests/../'
-
 from django import contrib
 from django.utils._os import upath
 from django.utils import six
@@ -33,6 +18,7 @@ CONTRIB_MODULE_PATH = 'django.contrib'
 TEST_TEMPLATE_DIR = 'templates'
 
 CONTRIB_DIR = os.path.dirname(upath(contrib.__file__))
+RUNTESTS_DIR = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(upath(__file__)))
 
 TEMP_DIR = tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix='django_')
 os.environ['DJANGO_TEST_TEMP_DIR'] = TEMP_DIR
@@ -99,10 +85,13 @@ def get_installed():
 
 
 def setup(verbosity, test_labels):
+    import django
     from django.conf import settings
     from django.db.models.loading import get_apps, load_app
     from django.test import TransactionTestCase, TestCase
 
+    print("Testing against Django installed in '%s'" % os.path.dirname(django.__file__))
+
     # Force declaring available_apps in TransactionTestCase for faster tests.
     def no_available_apps(self):
         raise Exception("Please define available_apps in TransactionTestCase "