Methods and apparatuses for determining likelihood of erroneous data bits stored in a plurality of memory cells. A sense circuit to perform a coarse sense operation to detect first memory cells of the plurality of memory cells that stored charge sufficiently above a transition voltage threshold where the first memory cells are unlikely to be erroneous. The sense circuit further performs a fine sense operation to sense second memory cells of the plurality of memory cells having stored charge near the transition voltage between adjacent logic states. The first memory cells remain unsensed during the fine sense operation. The second memory cells detected during the fine sense operation may have an increased likelihood of being erroneous. Responsive to a number of sensed second memory cells near the transition voltage exceeding a threshold, additional sensing operations are performed by the sense circuit.