A method of determining a modulation coding scheme (MCS) for communications between a communications device and a client station (STA). The communications device determines a first MCS for transmitting data to the STA during a first sounding interval based, at least in part, on channel state information received from the STA upon initiation of the first sounding interval. The device determines a first series of packet error rates (PERs) associated with one or more data transmissions to the STA during the first sounding interval. The device then determines a second MCS for transmitting data to the STA during a second sounding interval based, at least in part, on the first PER in the first series of PERs. Specifically, the second MCS is independent of the remaining PERs in the first series.