First, take a step back and look at the scores needed for a Letter of Commendation and for NMF for your state. If she was 15 points off of NMF for a high scoring West Coast state - let's say that is CA - then she would clearly be commended. CA NMF cutoff in 2013 was 221, commended was above 202. If she has maxed out on CR and W, then the M does not need to be so great to get commended (80 CR, 80 W, then only need a 43 M to get a 203).
I had the opposite problem with my eldest - she is a slacker. My middle one, in 9th grade this year, is the perfectionist. It will be interesting to see her PSAT score (will take in 9th, 10th, 11th), though she did fairly well on the SAT when she took it for CTY as a 7th grader.
I could not motivate my eldest, now a 12th grader, to study for the PSAT. She did study a bit (mainly CR) for the SAT, and received a score that would have been NM Commended had she scored that on the PSAT.
I think it may just be the teenager thing. We seem to fight this battle with anything that might help her get into certain colleges.
We seem to get better results when we give her some space and don't discuss things too much. View the PSAT as practice, and she'll take the SATs later this school year. Sign her up for the ACT as well, even though you live on a coast, so the ACT is not the popular test. Mine wasn't happy when I signed her up for ACTs, but she did like her score and it could only help her. And don't forget the SAT subject tests. Have her plan her test schedule - or for my slacker, I signed her up for the various tests and just dropped her off there on test day.
Good luck. These tests will be over at end of junior year, then on to college applications...
