1. An apparatus, comprising: a set of memory cells in a block; sense circuits connected to the set of memory cells; a driver connected to the set of memory cells; and a control circuit, the control circuit configured to: cause the driver to apply a set of pulses to the set of memory cells, cause the sense circuits to evaluate a characteristic of the set of memory cells, the characteristic comprises threshold voltage, current or resistance; based on results from the sense circuits, determine a rate of change of the characteristic, set an adjustable programming parameter based on the rate of change of the characteristic, and program memory cells in the block using the adjustable programming parameter.