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It depends on how anal you are. Like anything, yes the textbook way to check valve lash on an engine is to put a cylinder at TDC on the compression stroke and check it, but when you start wrenching on 6+ cylinder engines there's a "short cut" that actually delivers better results.
They suggest checking each cylinder at TDC on the COMPRESSION stroke as both valves are shut. To ensure absolute accuracy I kind of cheat and crank the engine until I can phycially see a pair of cam lobes pointing 180 degrees away from the cap. Usually on an engine one cylinder might have a valve(s) completely shut and on the base circle (so there's no chance that you might be a tad past TDC and just starting on the ramp on the exhaust valve on a long duration camshaft) another valve(s) will also be completely shut on a different cylinder. In that respect you can still check multiple valves at a time.
With OHC engines it's easy to see, with OHV engines often times people have charts to common engine families to this so you can do the same thing (even though you can't physically see the camshaft's position). With solid cammed race engines I'd always have the chart for that engine family and I could pop the valve covers, watch the distributor with the cap off, and go through the sequence quickly and accurately. I only use the timing marks on this engine for making sure you get the cams timed correctly upon reassembly.
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