An investigator collected data on midterm exam scores and final exam scores of elementary school students; results are summarized as follows.

AverageSD

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Boys' midterm score7020

Boys' final score6523

girls' midterm score7520

girls' final score8023

The correlation coefficient between midterm score and final score for the boys was about 0.70; for the girls, it was about the same. If you take the boys and the girls together, the correlation between midterm score and final score would be

Select one:

a.somewhat higher

b.just about 0.70

c.somewhat lower