diff --git a/rest_framework/runtests/runcoverage.py b/rest_framework/runtests/runcoverage.py
index ce11b213e..6379254a4 100755
--- a/rest_framework/runtests/runcoverage.py
+++ b/rest_framework/runtests/runcoverage.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import os
 import sys
 
 # fix sys path so we don't need to setup PYTHONPATH
-sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "../.."))
+sys.path = [os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "../..")] + sys.path
 os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'rest_framework.runtests.settings'
 
 from coverage import coverage
diff --git a/rest_framework/runtests/runtests.py b/rest_framework/runtests/runtests.py
index 2daaae4ee..bd702f4b3 100755
--- a/rest_framework/runtests/runtests.py
+++ b/rest_framework/runtests/runtests.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import os
 import sys
 
 # fix sys path so we don't need to setup PYTHONPATH
-sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "../.."))
+sys.path = [os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "../..")] + sys.path
 os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'rest_framework.runtests.settings'
 
 import django