Well here In New Zealand you have to know the checklists from memory for the flight test, mixed thoughts about this as its good to learn it and know it but then you can forget things, but the same can be said about reading a checklist, it just gets skimmed over and you can also miss things.
I would say learn it and cross refernce with a checklist and maybe some tick boxes against each item, maybe create your own checksheets that have been copied from the POH with boxes next to them and keep them handy so you just check it, tick it off and you know its done!