Some 391 students will get a second chance to take their finals for 169 courses taken last spring during three days this month, and about 147 students yesterday went to Memorial Hall to take their exams, out of a total of 154 scheduled.

Two proctors who presided over yesterday's session at Mem Hall criticized the process by which students can opt out of regularly scheduled exams.

"It is pretty easy for students to get medical excuses to miss their spring finals," William Edwards, a proctor for the exams, said yesterday, adding that "even though the University Health Services are supposed to have come down on illness abusers, the new policy of the Ad Board is to grant each student one makeup exam gratis, if the student claims he misread the scheduling times."

Jane Robinson, another exam proctor, said she thinks the current system "is ridiculous." She added that professors should administer their own exams instead of "creating this hassle and having to pay out extra money to proctors on top of it."

Most students who took the exams cited illness as their reason for postponing the exams until October. Other excuses included lack of time to study and poor scheduling of exams last spring.

Reactions were favorable to the exams but not to the testing atmosphere. "Mem Hall is a nice place, but not to take an exam," Robinson said. The second and third rounds of testing are slated for October 11 and 13