The build part was really helpful for me when I really struggled with EE. My program only ever made us build things for very first semester "build a circuit to light up the LED" type labs. Once we got to even the most basic of components it all became on paper. I really struggled with some of the mental models to the point where I made a habit of going out of my way to build a lot of circuits that I was just supposed to solve on paper. Getting everything correct felt no different to getting things completely wrong in a paper problem until I actually built out the circuits and suddenly "correctness" actually became a real thing that I was tangibly experiencing. I wish my program would've at least taught SPICE a little more to at least scratch the ability to simulate things a little better.