Acquisition of research skills, including scientific enquiry, is an important requirement in scientific education, after the acquisition of a body of fundamental knowledge.Working on research projects is a direct means to gain research skills, as well as gaining a firsthand experience of the research environment.Here, I shall narrate my experience and learnings as a research mentor involving 22 pre-university students in 6 research and development projects over a period of 7years, yielding a total of 19 peer-reviewed manuscripts.I have 3 intentions to this narration -(a) to demonstrate that pre-university students can carry out useful research, (b) summarize my learning experience in this journey, and (c) providing some pointers and encouragement to my fellow mentors and intended mentors.I learnt that (1) pre-university students can produce publishable work but (2) the scope of the projects must be well-defined with specific and measurable end-points, (3) the involvement of the mentor is substantial both in project formation and project management, (4) quality work can be achieved when students understand the background and context of their work, (5) enduring working relationship between students and mentors requires time and efforts to build, and (6) the students can pleasantly surprise the mentor with their quality of writing and reasoning.Upon reflection, I feel that I gained as much as the mentees/protégés, if not more, and this encouraged me.