The beauty of mathematics is having numbers, symbols and such, and not having them mingled in with words. Instead of just solving a mathematical equation, you have to translate the words into mathematical figures, which is trickier than solving because there aren't rules for this conversion (it's mainly logic) and often words are misleading and ambiguous. Of course any middle schooler can solve word problems for basic functions like addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, but as you get into more complicated mathematical concept (such as quadratics), you'll wish you can murder the man who thought up of word problems.
