Scaling Down from the Heights

The story goes that the Vilna Gaon [GRA] required that his students learn the entire Masechta BEFORE attending his Gmara Shiur.

That kind of demand is unrealistic for most Talmidim today.

However, isn't it reasonable to scale down that lofty requirement to have the Students learn all the Mishnayot of the entire Masechta first?
A fairly in depth look at the Mishnayot will take a lot less time than covering every Daf in the Gmara itself, yet, nevertheless, yield a fairly substantial subset anyway

KT
RRW