How important is the textbook? Do the quizzes/assignments/exam require it and is it possible to do well without it? Thanks for the help!

i took the course with him last year and you do not need the textbook
just make sure to go to every class and take notes, his quizzes are based on the lecture notes and also the exam is purely on lecture notes
the topic for assignment will probably change this year but nonetheless textbook is useless u just gotta find good articles online

the quizzes had a few questions from the text, but you can still do pretty good without it, since we only had assignments and the final. The final wasn't bad, but i think the text might have helped. with some questions. You can buy one text and share the cost with someone if you are willing to spend the money.

I took it last year, I agree with those above.. you can do well without it, but there were some questions on the quiz that had info from it, so it's ultimately up to you.
I found it helped with the assignments for information, I split it with a couple others in the class

Overall, the class is good! Like said before make sure you go to class and fill in the lecture notes

Did the class get a lot harder last year? The course reviews are all from the previous year, and everyone seems to think this course was a breeze, but I heard rumours Bernier made it much more difficult.