The invention discloses a method for preparing water-soluble polymers, belonging to the field of polymer preparing technologies. According to the method, the shortage that polyacrylate or polyacrylic acid is prepared through directly polymerizing acrylates and acrylic acids, which serve as monomers, is abandoned, and a method that the polyacrylate or polyacrylic acid is prepared through indirectly polymerizing lipophilic substances and hydrophilic substances, which serve as monomers, is provided. According to the method, suspension polymerization and alkali liquor hydrolysis methods are comprehensively and simultaneously used, namely that the lipophilic substances and the hydrophilic substances serve as the monomers, copolymers are synthesized by adopting the conventional suspension polymerization method, then, the polyacrylate is prepared by adopting an alkali liquor hydrolysis method, or the polyacrylic acid is prepared by adopting alkali liquor hydrolysis and acidification combined methods. The suspension polymerization has the advantages that the heat of polymerization is easy to dissipate, the temperature of polymerization reaction is easy to control, the distribution of molecular weight of polymerization products is narrow, the polymerization products are solid bead-shaped particles and are easily separated and dried, and the like; particularly, during polymerization, water serves as a continuous phase, so that the environment can not be polluted, and the requirements for sustainable development are met.