Take 11 refinements, apply them all to evocation upgrades. There are ten 'slots', control and power for air, earth, fire, water, and spirit. After 10.5 refinements(2 to open up new slots with one bonus each, 8 refinements providing 2 bonuses, 1 refinement providing 1 bonus and 1 focus slot), you get the following:
1 at +4
2 at +3
3 at +2
4 at +1
as far as I can tell the progression stops there. Without another slot, there's no way to move up farther. At this point the character has received at least 11 skill points(probably 2-3 times that many). Should be more than enough to get all three relevant stats to 5, if not higher. Assuming you use focus item bonus to balance out imbalances between control and power, you can toss out the equivalent of 9-10 shifts as a rote without breathing hard. In your weakest element you'd run at 6 shifts.
Granted the character is minimum -18 refresh. Still pretty scary though
Of course, you'd be completely neglecting half of wizardry