I had a final exam (university) recently and I noticed the guy next to me - let’s call him Pete - had his phone and was reading off of it. Very blatant cheating, to the point where I would be surprised it nobody else noticed.

I had studied a lot for this final and was very stressed about it. I was feeling very overstimulated from the stress, bright lights, and then Pete mouth breathing and coughing fairly often throughout the test. Looking back on it now, maybe he was just sick and couldn’t breathe through his nose, I don’t know. When I finished my exam I wrote on my page that he had his phone and was cheating when I handed it in to the prof.

In the moment I was really annoyed that he was cheating so blatantly, not even in a clever way, when myself and others had put a lot of effort into this class and studying. However, I feel awful about it now. I’m not the kind of person to tell on people like that. I have never been that kind of person and I feel sick thinking about the fact that he could get kicked out of the school because of me. I really regret saying anything and it’s been eating me up.

What’s worse is that I’m not a perfect student who has never cheated. I admittedly use the textbook/online resources in online tests that aren’t supposed to be open book. I’ve never cheated on an in-person test, but I can’t call people out for cheating in general when I’ve done the same. Some of the people I’ve talked to support what I did but I can’t help but feel like a hypocrite and a generally bad person. I really wish I would’ve just minded my own business, honestly. Also, I know some people in that class had another final just a few hours before this one and maybe Pete was one of those people. There’s just so many things I wish I would’ve considered before doing what I did. I feel like a huge asshole but I’m wondering what the unbiased public thinks.

AITA?