Whether to abort reception of a multi-part message in a code division multiple access communication system is determined by receiving a part of the multi-part message. Correlating the received part of the multi-part message with a known sequence generates a correlation value. The correlation value is compared with a threshold level. Reception of the multi-part message is aborted if the correlation value is less than a threshold level. In another aspect, the threshold level is dynamically adjusted based on a communication traffic behavior. The communication traffic behavior may be, for example, whether traffic directed to a particular user equipment (UE) is part of a burst directed to that UE.