At three different universities (two state universities and one private liberal arts school), I have witnessed college students praying during class. For the most part, I observed this interesting phenomenon prior to examinations, usually while the professor was preparing to distribute them. Some of the prayers were silent, and I inferred prayer from the bowing of the head, the position of the hands, and the mouthing of "amen" at the end. Other times, the prayer were at least partially audible. In fact, I have seen a few instances where the prayers were entirely audible and delivered in a histrionic manner so that other students could easily hear what was being said.

The students who did not pray (easily the majority in every case) typically either ignored the praying students or laughed at them, sometimes elbowing their peers and pointing out a praying student. As a student, my reactions included a combination of disgust, pity, and humor. I have always found public displays of religion (e.g., prayer, wearing crosses, t-shirts with religious material, etc.) to be unfortunate and in poor taste. At the same time, the arrogance that would possess someone to believe that their imaginary god would intervene by helping them do better on an exam was funny.