This has been a very useful thread so far, I'm very encouraged by the fact that my instrcutor has said pretty much everything covered here to me at some point.
He evn goes as far as making me do a proper verbal , outloud go/no go briefing before we taxi to the hold short line, including my rotate and climb speed . what I'm going to do in the event of engine failure on the takeoff roll, climbout etc.
I have to admit the mixture check is one thing I probably do badly. I don't yank it out til the engine dies but to be honest I'm still not 100% sure exactly what I'm looking for. My 172 has a fuel injected engine if that makes a difference?