How do I measure the execution time of python unit tests with nosetests?
You might try the nose plug-in posted here: https://github.com/mahmoudimus/nose-timer (or available via pip / PyPi). You can also use the built-in plugin --with-profile to do more serious profiling.
Alternatively:
python -m cProfile -o profile.out `which nosetests` .The output from can be viewed using, for example, runsnakerun, which makes it visually very obvious where your performance problems are. (e.g. it might be in a common method that many tests indirectly call)