this subject is weird to me.
Why pray for a better result when God has already planned what will befall onto you?
but I get it, we all wanted to defy fate and avoid misfortune.
Does prayers help? yes they do.
Prayers by itself are meditative.
It's a confidence booster, our 'God' won't make us fail, right? , if you can't trust yourself, trust God.
It filters out the bad vibes... we always pray for the positive result after all which in turn improves our moodlet being all positive and all.
It helps you sleep at night, you did all you could.
It gives us someone to blame if things don't go our way, making it hurt less.
At least now you have read a different perspective. Hehe. And yes prayers can make us calmer knowing everything is in God's hands.
In terms of someone to blame, that's not how it works though. If we blame the Lord for everything and not take responsibility for the things we did and didn't do even after He gave all the Commandments, reminders/teachings via approved apparitions or thru saints, etc., then it's all on us.