A system including a reference voltage module to select a first reference voltage between a first threshold voltage corresponding to a first state of a memory cell and a second threshold voltage corresponding to a second state of the memory cell, a second reference voltage less than the first reference voltage, and a third reference voltage greater than the first reference voltage. The system includes a read module to perform a first read operation to determine a state of the memory cell based on the first reference voltage, and in response to a first failure to decode data read from the memory cell in the first read operation, perform a second read operation to determine the state based on the second reference voltage and a third read operation to determine the state based on the third reference voltage.