A polishing method and apparatus for a semiconductor wafer includes a loading section having a loading platform for mounting a loading cassette, and a loading robot arm for transferring a wafer from the loading cassette. The apparatus includes a standby stage having a pre-polishing stand on which the wafer is placed, and a post-polishing stand for holding the wafer after polishing, and a polishing table on which a polishing process is performed. A wafer moving device transfers the wafer from the pre-polishing stand to the polishing table and back to the post-polishing stand. An unloading section includes an unloading platform for mounting an unloading cassette, and an unloading robot arm for transferring the wafer to the unloading cassette. A measurement device, proximal to the unloading stage, analyzes a polishing state of the wafer and then a cleaning device cleans the wafer after the wafers are analyzed.