Better way to write if/else conditions
You should separate these magic numbers into a new data structure. Then have some code run over it. This will be much nicer to read.

For example:

function getAward($year, $commends) {
    $commendationsNeeded = [
        7 =&gt; [
            "Bronze" =&gt; 300,
            "Silver" =&gt; 600,
            "Gold" =&gt; 900,
            "Platinum" =&gt; 1200,
            "Diamond" =&gt; 1500
        ],
        8 =&gt; [
            "Bronze" =&gt; 250,
            "Silver" =&gt; 550,
            "Gold" =&gt; 850,
            "Platinum" =&gt; 1100,
            "Diamond" =&gt; 1300
        ]
    ];
    $maxScore = 0;
    $maxAward = "None";
    foreach ($commendationsNeeded[$year] as $award =&gt; $needed) {
        if ($needed &lt;= $commends &amp;&amp; $maxScore &lt; $needed) {
            $maxScore = $needed;
            $maxAward = $award;
        }
    }
    return $maxAward;
}

echo getAward(7, 700); // Prints "Silver"