A processing device in a memory system reads a sense word from a memory device and executes a plurality of parity check equations on corresponding subsets of the sense word to determine a plurality of parity check equation results. The processing device determines a syndrome for the sense word using the plurality of parity check equation results, determines whether the syndrome for the sense word satisfies a codeword criterion, and responsive to the syndrome for the sense word not satisfying the codeword criterion, performs an iterative LDPC correction process, wherein at least one iteration after a first iteration in the LDPC correction process uses a criterion based at least partially on a previous iteration or partial iteration.