Disclosed herein are methods and systems according to which an access terminal intelligently accounts for differences in respective distances between itself and various access nodes, so as to more accurately estimate the C/I ratio of signals received from a serving access node. According to the method, the access terminal calculates a delta of (i) a serving distance between the access terminal and the serving access node and (ii) a neighboring distance between the access terminal and a neighboring access node. The access terminal then selects a C/I-evaluation time period based at least in part on the calculated delta, which may generally be used by the access terminal to select the C/I-evaluation time period such that this time period only includes time during which the access terminal is likely to have received signals emitted by both the serving access node and the neighboring access node.