A method and an apparatus to improve sensitivity of decoding time of a global positioning system (GPS) receiver at low signal to noise ratio is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes detecting a signal comprised of a data bits, arranging the data bits according to a specified property of an incremental mathematical table (e.g., may be an incremental bit-counter table), storing the data bits when arranging the data bits according to the specified property of the incremental mathematical table as a time counter table, algorithmically determining a value of an unknown data bit of the time counter table according to the specified property of the incremental mathematical table observed in the time counter table to generate a time counter value, and applying the time counter value to decode the signal.