Methods and apparatus for wireless communication for improving the call performance and power consumption during the connection state of a user equipment (UE). Aspects of the methods and apparatus relate to receiving a transmit power control (TPC) command from a network entity and decoding every TPC slot of the TPC command. Aspects of the methods and apparatus include ceasing the decoding of a TPC slot set when the current decoded symbol of the TPC slot is in disagreement with the previous decoded symbol of the TPC slot. The receiver of the UE is then deactivated until the end of the TPC slot set.