LANSING Mich.

Most of last academic year's Michigan high school juniors did well enough on a new standardized test to eventually get some college scholarship money from the state.

But fewer than half of the students met or exceeded state standards in some of the subject areas and likely won't get the scholarship cash up front, according to test results released Wednesday. That means they would have to wait until successfully completing some college work before receiving any of the up to $4,000 per student allocated through a scholarship program.

State officials said the first year of results on the new Michigan Merit Exam were about what they expected. The new test measures learning linked to tougher high school graduation standards that are being phased in during the next few years.

"As the new rigorous state graduation requirements are implemented, and students are exposed to more knowledge, we will see an improvement in the scores," State Board of Education President Kathleen Straus said in a statement.

The state said about 94 percent of the juniors who took the Michigan Merit Exam had valid scores, which would eventually qualify them for at least a chunk of the Michigan Promise Scholarship. Only about 40,000 students, however, met or exceeded standards in all the subjects required to get the upfront cash. More than 113,000 public high school students took at least one of the subject area tests.

The best performance on the tests came in social studies, where 83 percent of public high school students met or exceeded state standards. About 60 percent met that mark in reading, along with 56 percent in science, 46 percent in math and 40 percent in writing. The combined percentage passing English language arts was 51 percent.

Students who meet or exceed standards on each of the tests will get $1,000 at the start of their freshman year of college and the same amount at the beginning of their sophomore year. Once they successfully complete two years of college or training, they will get $2,000 more.