Question

The percent of working students increased 8.1 to 40.5 what was the present prior to increase

Answer 1

32.4

Explanation:

prior + 8.1 = 40.5 . . . . . . seems to model the problem statement

prior = 32.4 . . . . . . . subtract 8.1 from both sides

Prior to the increase the percent was 32.4.

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Comment on the problem statement

When you're talking about a percentage increase in a percentage, it is almost never clear whether you're talking about the percentage of the underlying number, or the percentage of the percentage.

Here, we assume the 8.1 is a percentage of working students, not a percentage of the percentage of workings students. If you actually intend the latter, the percentage before the increase was about 37.465%.