Described herein is a process for preparing solid acrylic acid polymers including: (a) preparing an aqueous acrylic acid polymer solution having a solids content of 30% to 70% by weight by free-radical polymerization, (b) neutralizing the aqueous acrylic acid polymer solution at least partly by adding a base, which results in release of a heat of neutralization, and concentrating the aqueous acrylic acid polymer solution by exploiting the heat of neutralization to give a highly concentrated acrylic acid polymer solution having a solids content of 60% to 80% by weight, (c) shaping and drying the highly concentrated acrylic acid polymer solution.