GEMMA, don't let the posts making comparisons with airliner checklists demean what you are trying to do. Of course airliner checklists are more simple, they act mainly as a back up where systems warnings wouldn't occur or if they did they'd cause issues like a rejected take off or go around (expensive and potentially embarrassing but not necessarily killers).
On the Boeing 767, the basic factory "before take off" checklist is simply Flaps & Strobes. Everything else is taken care of by warning systems if you miss something. Of course such a warning would be threatening to one's career path so SOP's (standard operating procedures) exist to make sure everything's covered before you take off or land. Often that includes an extended company generated checklist. On a light plane, you're not covered by sophisticated systems, so do as much (or little) as you need to make sure you land safely and are not going to be embarrassed by anything.
For GA flying, I've made up my own laminated checklists, based on the POH as a reference but in a sensible order, either a clockwise/anticlockwise scan, or related to phase of flight (eg not putting the prop to fine downwind and being a noisy neighbour etc).
Good luck with the rest of your course.