You are getting good advice from people who know.

Drive the 45 minutes with your classmates for today's total immersion study session, break for the home cooked meal, then study some more before driving the 45 minutes back to Tulsa.

Here is some more advice: If you are not up to speed, it will place an additional burden on your sim partner if he has to carry your weight as well as his own.

It is hard to read inflection on a message board so I aplogise in advance if I read you wrong, but there is very little patience for petulant among your future collegues.