Your teacher was wrong to correct you.
'Effort' can be either countable or uncountable, and your sentence is fine (apart from the 'on).
Your sentence could be written as you did:
"...I haven't even tried to make an effort to meet you there..."
or
"...I haven't even tried to make any effort to meet you there..."
The first uses it as a countable noun ( a single attempt), while the second uses it as a uncountable noun (an abstract capacity or resource that you tap into). Both are equally correct, but I prefer your version.
In fact, I'd say that the countable use of 'effort' is probably more common than the uncountable use. It's certainly more common when positive, for example : 'He made a great effort to understand the problem'. The uncountable form, 'He made great effort', sounds over-formal, and I'd probably correct that to 'an effort'. If a student has tried hard with a piece of work, the teacher might describe it as 'a good effort' ( as in 'attempt') - clearly countable. And, of course, it can also be plural ('Despite my best efforts') : this makes it extremely obvious that 'effort' can certainly be a countable word.