This article examines the significance of information literacy self-assessments in higher education with a special focus on situational conditions increasing their explanatory power. First, it was hypothesised that self-assessments of information literacy correlate higher with factual information literacy if measured after the administration of information search tasks (and tests) due to the intrinsic feedback associated with their completion. Furthermore, it was assumed that self-assessments measured after the administration of information search tasks explain incremental variance over standardised information literacy tests in information search performance. A study with N = 82 German psychology students was carried out to verify these assumptions. Information literacy self-efficacy (as one form of self-assessment), as well as the PIKE-P information literacy test and several standardised information search tasks, was included in the test battery. As both assumptions were largely supported, we recommend that researchers complement their test batteries by self-assessments but warn them against relying primarily on this method. We further recommend that self-assessments should take place at the end of testing.