To find the truth, one must have a method. To have a working method, though, one must have some criterion with which to judge the results of the method. The criterion assumes knowledge of some essential thing to be used as a standard. When Hegel says An examination consists in applying an accepted standard and deciding on whether something is correct or incorrect on the basis of its correspondence or non-correspondence to that standard. Hegel answers these questions by defining reality in a unique way.
Knowledge interacts with consciousness on two levels.
Consciousness defines something in relation to itself and it also distinguishes something apart from itself. Thus, the true nature of things lies not in the objects in themselves, nor in the concept of these objects, but in a combination of both of these. Only by grasping both aspects of this relationship can one truly have any kind of absolute truth. One can be conscious of one's own consciousness. Since both aspects of this now exist in the mind, one is able to compare and combine the two and reach the true nature of the reality of consciousness.