My sixth grader was assigned a 5-7 page paper with 5 sources (3 had to be books) and 10 footnotes/citations (1 citation required from each source.)
Unlike her dad (and to her benefit) she handled it with aplomb and turned in a 15 page biography of JRR Tolkien. Most of it had to do with his childhood, and she ended it with a quote from Gandalf.
To prepare, she did 11 note cards and an outline. She did the note cards twice as she thought she lost them, recreating them in about 2-3 hours.
She has her mother to thank for these habits. And I think that, compared to the schooling I had, this was about 1-2 years ahead of me (as far as the assignment goes) and is probably 6 years ahead of me in the amount of maturity and preparation.